Orumiyeh Prison authorities took away a bed of a political prisoner and allocated it to a non-political prisoner with no specific reason. The concerned political prisoner was then transferred from ward 1 to ward 2, which is one of the most crowded wards at this prison.
“Following their latest measures for harassing Political prisoners by depriving them from basic facilities, authorities of Orumiyeh Central Prison took away Salar Pirzadegan’s bed on July 5 and allocated it to a non-political prisoner. This political prisoner, who has spent the last two years in Orumiyeh Central Prison, was then transferred from ward 1 to ward 2”, a reliable source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
“Mr. Pirzadegan is now deprived of facilities like a bed and he has to sleep on the corridor’s floor. As the number of prisoners at this prison is three times its capacity, this political prisoner may need to wait for months before he could have a bed in one of the cells at Orumiyeh Central Prison”, the source added.
“The majority of political prisoners are scattered in different sections of the prison and they do not have the right to transfer to the ward 12 which is specific to political prisoners. Prison officials and the Office of the intelligence monitor political prisoners through CCTV and if they observe any interaction between these prisoners and non-political ones, political prisoners will be transferred to other wards”, the source continued.
Salar Pirzadegan, a Kurdish citizen of Orumieh, was arrested in March 2015 on charges of cooperating with a Kurdish party. After a month of interrogation at the Orumieh Intelligence Office Detention Centre, he was transferred to the Orumieh Central Prison.
On April 2016, Pirzadegan went on trial at the Revolutionary Court/branch 2 headed by judge Ali Sheikhlou. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment on charges of “cooperation with one of the Kurdish parties. The final decree was then reduced to three years and nine months in prison based on the regulation concerning the court showing leniency in cases where no application for appeals is filed against the sentence.
