Three Kurdish political prisoners, Keyhan Mokarram, Nayeb Hajizadeh, and Ali Mohammadi-Moghaddam, went on a hunger strike in Orumiyeh prison on 11 December.
Mokarram has gone on a hunger strike to protest the non-implementation of the double-urgency parliamentary plan regarding his case, which would reduce his prison term.
Hajizadeh’s hunger strike is a protest against authorities denying him access to medical services.
Also, Mohammadi-Moghadam went on a hunger strike demanding parole or his transfer to a hospital outside the prison.
On 11 December, Mokarram sat in front of the guard office in Orumiyeh Central Prison, handing over a letter that stated he had gone on a hunger strike.
The political prisoner had previously gone on a hunger strike on 13 June with a similar request. He ended his strike after prison officials promised to implement the double-urgency motion passed by the parliament regarding his sentence.
Mokarram’s two co-defendants have already been released from prison following the implementation of this motion, but so far, no action has been taken in his case.
Mohammadi-Moghadam, who has suffered from schizophrenia in solitary confinement for 15 months in harsh environmental conditions, is unable to continue his imprisonment, according to the Orumiyeh Forensic Psychiatric Commission.
The Kurdish political prisoner’s repeated requests for parole or transfer to a hospital have so far been rejected.
Therefore, he has gone on a hunger strike, sewing his lips together for the third time in two years.
Hajizadeh also needs to be treated at the hospital due to a leg infection and internal rupture of the abdomen, but prison officials have refused to transfer him to an out-of-prison hospital.
In June, he was admitted to an out-of-prison hospital for leg surgery but was returned to prison without completing his treatment.
After a while, his health deteriorated due to an infection in his leg, as well as an internal rupture of his abdomen due to carrying a heavy load while working in prison.
In early December, the political prisoner was transferred to Arefian Hospital in Orumiyeh but was returned to prison without any medical treatment.
Despite the advice of prison infirmary doctors and the issuance of a permit for his immediate transfer to an out-of-prison hospital, prison officials have so far taken no action.
Nayeb Hajizadeh
Security forces had arrested Nayeb Hajizadeh on 8 October 2019, along with four other civilians Kamran Ghasemi, Keyvan Rashozadeh, Omid Saeidi, and Abdolaziz Mohammadpour. They were taken to the detention centre of the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh.
After a month of interrogation in the detention centre of the intelligence ministry, these civilians were transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
Their trial was held in December 2020 in Branch 2 of the Orumiyeh Revolutionary Court. Each was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison on charges of “acting against national security” through “membership in the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan”.
In August, Hajizadeh and two other Kurdish political prisoners, Keyhan Mokarram and Nayeb Askari, were sentenced to 50 lashes and three months in prison after the head of Orumiyeh Central Prison filed a complaint, accusing the prisoners of “disrupting the prison order”.
The lawsuit was filed after a general crimes prisoner beat a Kurdish political prisoner.
Keyhan Mokarram
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested Keyhan Mokarram on 8 July 2019 in the village of Anbi in Orumiyeh.
After two months in detention, he was released on bail pending trial.
In September 2019, Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Ali Sheikhlou, sentenced the Kurdish civilian to five years in prison on charges of “collaborating with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)”.
The sentence was upheld in the Court of Appeals of Orumiyeh after the political prisoner’s appeal against the ruling.
He was imprisoned in January 2020.
Ali Mohammadi-Moghaddam
Ministry of Intelligence arrested Ali Mohammadi-Moghaddam at his home in Tehran in January 2009. After 15 months of detention in solitary confinement at security detention facilities of the Iranian army and intelligence ministry, he was transferred to the general ward of Evin Prison.
Mohammadi-Moghaddam is a Kurdish civilian from Kermanshah and a resident of Tehran. He holds a masters’ degree in political science and was a member of the Iranian army.
After nearly two years of uncertainty, in October 2010, Branch 2 of the Military Court in Tehran sentenced him to 18 years in prison and internal exile to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
The court charged him with “enmity against God” (moharebeh) through “espionage for the US and British governments”.
During his trial, Mohammadi-Moghaddam was denied the right to an assigned lawyer.
The sentence was upheld in Branch 31 of the Supreme Court a month later, and the prisoner was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison in 2011.
The prisoner had been sent on leave several times in the past few years, but in September 2020, after being sent on leave, security forces arrested him in northwestern Khoy when he was about to leave the country. Since then, he has not been allowed temporary leaves and has also been denied to receive his medicine.
A source familiar with the case of this political prisoner had previously spoken to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said: “On 14 October, Branch 2 of the Tehran Military Court sent a letter to Orumiyeh Central Prison requesting that Mr Mohammadi-Moghaddam be transferred to Razi Psychiatric Hospital due to his schizophrenic condition, but prison officials have so far refused to send him to the hospital.”
