Five Kurdish political and religious prisoners were beaten up by dozens of Prisoner of Dangerous Crimes and authorities in ward 1 (Psychotherapy Section) of Orumiyeh Central Prison before being transferred to solitary confinement cells.
“On Wednesday, October 18, five Kurdish political and religious prisoners- including Kamran Sheikh, Khosrow Besharat, Anwar Khezari, Ramin Roozban and Siamak Ashrafi- detained in ward 1 (Psychotherapy Section) were severely beaten by about 40 prisoners of Dangerous Crimes who were provoked by prison authorities and the Special Office of Intelligence Bureau.” an informed source told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
“One of the prisoners of dangerous crimes called Rashid Zulfalizadeh, who is closely linked to Hussein Gharabaghi (head of the psychotherapy ward 1), led the group of prisoners involved in the conflict. The prisoner of a dangerous crime earlier had been beaten in another case. Zulfalizadeh has previously beaten up an old Kurdish political prisoner called Hassan Rastegari Majd in a similar conflict.”, the source added.
“After the planned attack on these five prisoners, the prison authorities transferred all five political and religious prisoners handcuffed to solitary confinement cells while the head of the prison (Alireza Safari) who had covered his face and the prison guards also beat the prisoners with batons.”, the source continued. According to this source, three of these prisoners were returned to the ward late last night. However, two prisoners called Kamran Shaikh and Anwar Khezari who were wounded in this incident are still kept in solitary confinement at the order of the head of the prison until the beating signs disappear.
“The majority of the officials and the administration officers of Special Office of Intelligence Bureau at Orumiyeh Central Prison are Azeri citizens. Every now and then, the prison authorities incite Azeri, Kurdish and Sunni-Shiite prisoners to cause conflict. Moreover, the prison officials beat up political and religious Kurdish prisoners held at the wards for non-political prisoners with the support of the prison guard. “, the source added.
Kamran Shikha, Khosro Basharat and Anwar Khezari had been transferred to the Orumiyeh Central Prison for a court hearing on Tuesday, Sept 19, 2017. They were transferred to solitary confinement cells due to protesting to being kept at wards 3 & 4 where the non-political prisoners are held. They went on hunger strike in protest against non-separation of political prisoners from non-political crimes at Orumiyeh Central prison for 6 days. They ended their hunger strike after the authorities promised to pay attention to their demands about being transferred to ward 12 (for Political Prisoners) in the near future. Eventually, they were transferred to ward 1 (Psychotherapy Section).
Ramin Roozban and Siamak Ashrafi, two Kurdish citizens from Orumiyeh, have been sentenced to 3 of imprisonment by the Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh on charges of cooperating with the Kurdish parties. Ramin Roozban and Simak Ashrafi have so far served two years ago and one year in jail respectively.
