Hamza Darwish, a Sunni prisoner in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, has been on hunger strike since March 17, 2018, in protest to the unfair trial and the lack of “Crime Based Wards Separation” rule. As a result, his health condition is currently critical. Moreover, security forces have threatened this prisoner’s family to force him to stop hunger strike and cooperate with the security forces.

An informed source has told Kurdish Human Rights Network (KHRN) that Hamza Darwish had been transferred to Hall 31, Section 10 of the Prison on Monday, March 14th without respect to the regulation of Crime Based Wards Separation and is now held among dangerous prisoners.

“Hamza Darwish is suffering from severe pain in the right kidney due to his hunger strike. He has also fainted several times.”, the source added.

According to the source, the prison chief (Mostafa Ziaei) has opposed to transferring Hamza Darwish to the hospital. Furthermore, after becoming unconscious yesterday, the prison chief has sent him a message through the security officer: “I told you to before, you go out of here with Hydrochloric acid!

“During the past few days, the Ministry of Intelligence has referred to his family’s house in one of the northern villages of Iran and asked them to encourage their son to cooperate with the Ministry of Intelligence and break his strike. Security officials have also promised that if he cooperates with the Ministry of Intelligence, he will be released and if he does not cooperate, he would be held in detention for 15 years.”The source said.

The security officials have also conditioned his release to returning to Syria and fighting ISIS and threatened that he would spend 15 more years in prison in case he refuses to cooperate with them.

Hamza Darwish, 24 years old, is the son of Mohammad Nasser from Talesh. He has previously claimed that he was deceived by ISIS and gone to Turkey in 2015 and he has then been transferred to Syria from there. He has spent some time in ISIS jail in Syria and later managed to escape.

He went to Turkey after escaping from the ISIS jail and returned to Iran once he obtained a Courtesy Card from Iran’s Embassy in Turkey, but he was arrested by the security forces and detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison ward 209 for two months before being released on bail later on July 19, 2015.

Hamza Darwish was arrested on charge of “illegally leaving the country”, and detained for 100 days in solitary confinement in Rasht Intelligence Service Detention Service. For a while, he was held in Lakan Prison in this city and then he was transferred to Evin prison. This prisoner was held in the quarantine ward in Evin prison for 35 days before being transferred to hall 3 of ward 4.

“A year after being released on July 10, 2015, I was arrested again and spent 100 days in solitary confinement before being transferred to Section 4 of Evin Prisons and I was told that I would be held on tried in court on March 9, 2015, in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court and on charges of Moharebeh through membership in ISIS and illegally leaving the country. On March 29, 2015, I was served with the court verdict which sentenced me to 18 years of imprisonment.”, the prisoner wrote in an open letter regarding his arrest and trial:

The prison authorities have told the religious prisoner that, only 15 years of his 18 years imprisonment sentence is enforceable per Article 134.