Mustafa Sabzi, a Kurdish political prisoner, went on a hunger strike in protest to the sabotage of a supervising judge and Orumiyeh prison officials to agree with his request for leave.
According to a source close to this political prisoner, following the death of his younger brother due to Covid-19, this political prisoner and his family requested the authorities to grant him so he can attend his brother’s funeral. However, the supervising judge demanded bail of one billion tomans for his leave.
The source added that after the family of the political prisoner had secured the bail, the judge in charge of the prison subjected his leave to the approval of the prison classification council in the coming weeks.
The political prisoner has gone on a hunger strike three times in the past two years in protest to the refusal of authorities to grant his transfer request to Mako Prison, where his family lives.
Mustafa Sabzi from Mako was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in one of the villages near Orumiyeh in June 2014 and he was interrogated for two months in one of the security detention centres in Orumiyeh. A few months later, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh on charges of “membership in the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK).” This verdict was also upheld by the Orumiyeh Court of Appeal.
He was transferred from Orumiyeh Prison to Khoy Prison in December last year. After several months in this prison, he was returned to Orumiyeh Central Prison in May 2020.
