Kurdish political prisoner Houshmand Alipour has gone on a hunger strike in Sanandaj prison in Kurdistan province on 16 November, protesting the refusal of his demand for temporary leave by the Ministry of Intelligence.
Branch 4 of the Enforcement of Judgements Office in Sanandaj, in a letter last week, informed Alipour that his request for temporary leave had been rejected by the court for unknown reasons.
Also, previously the Public Prosecutor of Sanandaj had opposed his request to attend his brother, Zhiyan Alipour‘s funeral.
Zhiyan Alipour was a young kolbar who was shot and killed by Iranian border forces in Sardasht, West Azerbaijan province, on 14 October.
Background
Security forces arrested Houshmand Alipour and another civilian named Mohammad Ostad Ghader near Saqqez, Kurdistan province, on 3 August 2018. They took the two civilians to the detention centre of the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj.
The two were transferred to Saqqez Prison after 108 days of interrogation and finally to Sanandaj Central Prison in January 2019.
On 23 October 2019, their first court hearing was held in Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj – presided over by judge Saeidi – on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership in the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK).
In January 2020, the court sentenced Alipour to the death penalty and Ghader to five years in prison.
In September 2020, the country’s Supreme Court overturned the ruling after the political prisoner appealed against it. It then referred the case to Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj.
On 20 September 2020, Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj sentenced Alipour to eight years in prison on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership in the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK).
