A hunger-striking political prisoner has lost his life on 1 January in Iran’s Sheiban Prison in southwestern Ahvaz, Khuzestan province.
Political prisoner Adel Kianpour had gone on a hunger strike on 25 December, demanding a fair trial and access to medical treatment.
So far, government sources have not officially revealed the cause of death of the political prisoner.
On 2 January, one of his relatives told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that his body had been transferred to the department of forensic medicine for an autopsy.
Kianpour had contracted coronavirus in prison in October 2021, the relative said.
Kianpour, from Ahvaz, returned to Iran in July 2020 after a year-long fight against the Islamic State (IS) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the lines of the PAK. He turned himself in at the border of Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province.
In an audio file published on social media a few months ago, Kianpour was heard speaking on his detention and trial process.
He said that after being detained, he was interrogated for two months in a security detention centre on the accusation of “membership in the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK)”, “disturbing public opinion”, and “propaganda against the state”. Then he was transferred to Sheiban Prison.
In the audio file, the political prisoner also spoke of authorities denying him of receiving family visits for a period of five months.
He added: “I was acquitted of membership in PAK by Branch 102 of Piranshahr Court, but after 16 months of indecision and temporary detention in prison, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Ahvaz sentenced me to a total of three years in prison on charges of propaganda against the state, disturbing public opinion, and carrying and possessing two weapons.”
In September 2018, Kianpour participated in the war against the Islamic State (IS) for about a year along the lines of the PAK in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Photos of him taken at this period have been published on the internet. The publication of these photos has been used in court as evidence for his conviction.
In the past few years, dozens of Kurdish civilians, despite having received a safe-conduct from the security services of the Islamic Republic of Iran, have been detained and sentenced to long prison terms after returning to Iran.
