Authorities in Sanandaj Central Prison in Kurdistan province have ordered that Kurdish political prisoner Houshmand Alipour be put in solitary confinement on the eighth day of his hunger on 23 November.
Also, Shaker Behrouz, a Kurdish political prisoner sentenced to death, ended his hunger strike on the fourth day with the favourable promise of the prison authorities.
Court, intelligence ministry oppose Alipour’s leave
Alipour has been on a hunger strike since 16 November, protesting against the opposition of the Ministry of Intelligence to his request for temporary leave.
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, the Public Prosecutor of Sanandaj had previously 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.
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).
Authorities’ promise ends Behrouz’s hunger strike
Also, Shaker Behrouz, who was charged with premeditated murder, met with prison officials and the supervising judge on the fourth day of his strike and ended the strike after authorities promised to seek the victim’s family’s consent.
The political prisoner went on a hunger strike on 21 November, protesting against the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for exerting pressure on the victim’s family not to withdraw their complaint.
