Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian has been held in a solitary cell in Kerman for two and a half months. She was transferred from the quarantine of Qarchak prison in Varamin to Kerman Central Prison on June 25, 2020.
During a telephone call with her family a few days ago, she informed them that the prison authorities had reportedly promised her a transfer to Khoy prison if she paid the transport costs herself. However, no practical action has been taken in this regard yet.
Jalalian has been able to call her family every few weeks under the supervision and in the Persian language because she is not allowed to speak Kurdish even though Jalalian’s parent have difficulty understanding Persian.The political prisoner has been held in the solitary confinement at Kerman Prison despite suffering from coronary heart disease during her detention in the difficult conditions of Qarchak Prison. She went on a hunger strike, but on the sixth day of her hunger strike, on 21 Jun, she was transferred from the quarantine ward of Qarchak Prison to Kerman Prison again. Kerman Prison is located a few thousand kilometres from her family’s place of residence in Mako.
Zeinab Jalalian, 38 years old from Maku, was arrested in summer 2008 in Kermanshah. After months in solitary confinement and enduring severe physical and mental torture, she was sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges of “acting against national security” and “moharebeh” through membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). Her death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in 2011 by the Court of Appeals and Zeinab was later transferred to Khoy Prison in West Azerbaijan Province. She has suffered from a number of illnesses during her imprisonment.
In 2016, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an official request to the Islamic Republic of Iran to release Zeinab Jalalian immediately and take all necessary measures to compensate her without delay in accordance with the international regulations. In a statement issued by the International Working Group, Zeinab Jalalian’s deprivation of liberty was described as an arbitrary measure contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Iran is obliged to prosecute those officials responsible for violating the rights of the Kurdish political activist.
