On May 27, 17 Sunni, Kurdish prisoners ended a 3-day hunger strikes in Orumiyeh prison by threats and promises of authorities in Prison. They have been on hunger strike to protest against the lack of “Crime Based Wards Separation” rule in Orumiyeh prison.
An informed source told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that these prisoners have been held in ward number 3-4 and 2 (Ward for mental prisoners) of Orumiyeh prison, but after protest in front of the gate of officers in prison in second days of the strike, they have been transferred to solitary confinements yard, by the prison authorities. After several hours, 14 of them being transferred to different public wards and three of them transferred to military ward of Orumiyeh Prison.
According to the source, five of these prisoners transferred to ward number 1 of mental prisoners, five of them to ward 2 of mental prisoners and the rest were transferred to ward number 3-4. The identity of some of these prisoners is as follows: Bahman Ghaderpour, Yaghoub Noureh, Abdolghour Asvar, Kazem (Unknown family name), Kamal Ali Aghdam, Hazhae Faroughi, Behzad (Unknown family name), Mansour Choupani, Abdolkhalegh Mohammad Zadeh. Three other prisoners, Ibrahim Gholami, Yousef GhasemPour and Abdollah Cham, have been accused of organising the strike and severely beaten in the solitary confinements yard by authorities. After being disconnected with other prisoners, they have been transferred to military ward of the prison on the orders of prison authorities.The prisoners have been deprived of their right to contact and meet with their families during the past few days.
The source added, Abdolghour Asvar, Kamal Ali Aghdam, Hazhae Faroughi, Yaghoub Noureh, Abdolkhalegh Mohammad Zadeh and Mansour Choupani have been sentenced to five years in prison earlier, on charges of membership in a Salafi group. Ibrahim Gholami also charged with the same sentence to three years in prison. He already served more than two years in prison.
The source said, the prison officials promised the political prisoners to launch a special ward for religious prisoners, in the near future and all religious prisoners will be transferred to that ward. They ended their hunger strikes with the authorities’ favourable promises.
Over the past two years, officials in Orumiyeh Central Prison, have intensified their pressure on political prisoners because of a plan by various security and intelligence apparatus to shut down sections of political ward.
According to information obtained from local sources by KHRN, 10 political prisoners, one security prisoner and 8 non-political prisoners are currently imprisoned in the ward 12 and at least 50 political and religious prisoners are imprisoned with dangerous criminal inmates at the prison.
