A group of political prisoners from Orumiyeh prison’s Ward 12 refused to receive prison food on 26 January in protest over being imprisoned with non-political and criminal inmates, a Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) source said.
The source said that the prisoners had demanded relocation of all political prisoners to the ward and all non-political criminal prisoners to be taken elsewhere in the prison.
“The prison’s Ward 12 is well-known for being the ward for political prisoners. However, the political prisoners have been taken to be imprisoned with non-political criminal prisoners. The political prisoners protested to demand that all non-political prisoners are relocated and replaced with political prisoners,” the KHRN source said.
“Five Kurdish citizens who had been detained earlier by the Intelligence Office for alleged involvement with Salafi groups were transferred to the solitary confinement cells of Ward 12 early morning of the same day. Five more non- political prisoners were taken to Ward 12 later on in the day, and this provoked the political prisoners of Ward 12 to start their protest. They decided to refuse receiving the prison food for their lunch and dinner.”
The KHRN source said that “the prison’s security officials forcefully transferred two of the political prisoners, Kamal Hasan Ramazan and Mostafa Ali Ahmad, to solitary confinement cells immediately after the protest spread across the ward.”
A prison source said that “the governor of the prison paid a visit to Ward 12 in the late evening of the same day and ordered the prison guards to relocate the 10 non-political prisoners to another ward, and following his order he announced that no more new prisoners would be brought to Ward 12, political or non-political. He also said that political prisoners already relocated to cells shared with non-political criminal inmates would not return to Ward 12.”
The protesting prisoners refused to take the prison’s breakfast the next day on 27 January.
However, they later agreed to end the protest on the condition that the two political prisoners transferred to solitary confinement the previous night return to Ward 12, a demand the prison authorities met immediately.
Ward 12 is unofficially described as “the ward of political prisoners”.
KHRN data shows that 19 political prisoners and 13 non-political prisoners are currently imprisoned in the ward.
According to KHRN information, at least 50 political and religious prisoners are imprisoned with dangerous criminal inmates at the prison.
In the past few weeks, 4 Kurdish political prisoners Bahman Dalaii Milan, Raouf Mohamad Ali, Mostafa Sabzi and Rahman Rashidzadeh, who were imprisoned in non- political wards, went on hunger strike to protest their conditions and demand relocation to return to the ward of political prisoners.
Only Bahman Dalaii Milan was finally transferred back to Ward 12, while the other three were forced to return to cells with dangerous non-political inmates after temporary imprisonment in solitary confinement cells for having gone on a hunger strike.
KHRN has names of 31 Kurdish political prisoners currently kept imprisoned in various wards among non-political prisoners in Orumiyeh prison.
1- Ghader Mohamadzadeh – from Bookan – arrested in 2004 – sentenced to 14 years – ward 4
2- Fayeq Najafi – from Orumiyeh – arrested in June 2014 – sentenced to 4 years and 6 months – ward 3
3- Karim Zamani – from Orumiyeh – arrested in June 2014 – sentenced to 2 years and 6 months – ward 3.
4- Husian Najafi – from Orumiyeh – arrested in June 2014 – sentenced to 2 years and 6 months – ward 4.
5- Faramarz Najafi – from Orumiyeh – arrested in June 2014 – sentenced to 2 years and 6 months – ward 4.
6- Ali Ahrom – from Mako – arrested in June 2014 – sentenced to 2 years – ward 3.
7- Saman Mahmoudi – from Orumiyeh – arrested in June 2015 – sentenced to 3 years – ward 4
8- Hoshmat Naemanpour – from Orumiyeh – arrested in Septamber 2014 – sentenced to 1 years and 6 months – mental health section.
9- Masoud Naemanpour – from Orumiyeh – arrested in Septamber 2015 – mental health section.
10- Raouf Mohamad Ali – from Sulaymaniyeh – arrested in March 2015 – sentenced to 10 years – ward 10.
11- Farhad Aryaee – from Orumiyeh – arrested in November 2012 – sentenced to 7 years – mental health section .
12. Alireza Aubi – from Orumiyeh – arrested in Septamber 2014 – sentenced to 1 years and 6 months – mental health section.
13- Siamak Azmiri – from Orumiyeh – arrested in March 2014 – mental health section.
14- Mostafa sabzi – from Orumiyeh – arrested in June 2014 – sentenced to 15 years- ward 5.
15- Bahram Maromi – from Orumiyeh – arrested in March 2014 – sentenced to 2 years – ward 13.
16- Ali Yeganeh – from Orumiyeh – arrested in Sepamber 2014 – ward 13.
17- Diako Rasoulzadeh – from Mahabad – arrested in March 2013 – sentenced to death – ward 13.
18- Hussian Osmani – from Mahabad – arrested in March 2013 – sentenced to death – ward 10.
19- Hassan rastgari – from Orumiyeh – arrested in October 2014 – sentenced to 17 years – ward 13.
20- Rahman Rashidzadeh – from Orumiyeh – arrested in Spring 2014 – sentenced to 3 years – ward 13.
21- Kamran Najafi – from Orumiyeh – arrested in October 2015 – ward 13.
22- Torej Ismaili – from Orumiyeh – arrested in October 2015 – sentenced to 5 – ward 14.
23- Mohamad Meromi – from mako – arrested in October 2015 – ward 10.
24- Saeed Balayee- from Mako – arrested in October 2015 – ward 10.
25- Qotbadin – from Mako – arrested in October 2015 – ward 10.
26- Qader Abdullahzadeh – from Orumiyeh – arrested in September 2015 – sentenced to 5 – ward 4.
27- kaveh Hayati – from Orumiyeh – arrested in October 2015 – ward 4.
28- Mohammad Razmawar – from Mako – arrested in October 2015 – sentenced to 1 – ward 4.
29- Saber ShekhAbdullah – from Mahabad – arrested in March 2014 – sentenced to death – ward 2.
30- Dawoud Defaee – from Orumiyeh – arrested in August 2015- ward 2.
31- Asxar Sharifi – from Orumiyeh – sentenced to 7 – mental health section.
