A death row Syrian Kurdish political prisoner was transferred to the detention centre of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), from Orumiyeh Central Prison on 7 November, as source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
No exact information has been provided as to the reason for transferring Kamal Hassan Ramazan to the IRGC’s Unit in Orumiyeh.
Ramazan was previously relocated from Orumiyeh Central Prison to the IRGC Intelligence Unit followed by protests and strikes of prisoners of conscience on 7 September who were severely beaten by the security agents.
Kamal Hassan Ramazan Profile:
Political prisoner Kamal Hassan Ramazan is a 33-year-old Syrian Kurd from the city of Serekaniye ([Ras al-Ayn in Arabic] in the Syrian Kurdistan region known as Rojava.
While in prison, he was taken for interrogation for eight days in December 2016, 10 days in January 2017, seven days in December 2017, and eight days in August 2018 at the detention centres of the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh. He refused to to give false confessions although pressured.
He was arrested by the security forces in Iran’s Orumiyeh on 28 August 2014. He was then taken to Orumiyeh Central Prison after four months of interrogation at the detention centres of the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence.
On August 2019, following his sudden relocation to the Ministry of Intelligence’s Detention Centre in Orumiyeh when he faced the risk of his death sentence being implemented, Amnesty International issued a statement expressing concern over his situation and called for the immediate revocation of his death penalty.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on 14 August 2015 on charges of “membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) by Second Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh. His imprisonment sentence was later reduced to seven years.
Over the past few years, despite that his verdict was finalised, he was has been taken to the Security Detention Centre of Orumiyeh four times and interrogated for alleged killing of an IRGC member in 2011. He denies having any role in the murder.
He was formally summoned when the verdict was issued by the Enforcement Office of Orumiyeh Prison on May 2017.
The verdict was already issued in absentia by the Third Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court for a defendant named Kamal Sur over the murder of an IRGC member. The Iranian authorities used the verdict for Kamal Hassan Ramazan because he has the first name of the defendant for whom a death sentence was issued in absentia.
