Prison officials in Iran’s northwestern Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan province, took yesterday some political prisoners from solitary confinement to the newly-constructed security ward for prisoners of conscience.
These included prisoners Farzad Samani and Hamed Ghare-Oghlani.
On 10 January, the prison’s special guard forces severely beat prisoners of conscience and took 20 of them to solitary confinement after the prisoners refused to be transferred to the new ward.
Meanwhile, some other political prisoners, including Keyhan Mokarram, Kamran Ghassemi, and Mohammad Houshangi, are still being held in solitary confinement, handcuffed and fettered, despite injuries sustained from being beaten.
Furthermore, three prisoners named Sirvan Hosseini-Asl, Saman Hosseini-Asl, and Nayeb Askari, have been transferred from the prison to a security detention centre in Orumiyeh in the past two days while suffering severe head, hand, and chest injuries and fractures. There is no information on the situation of these prisoners.
A source close to the families of the prisoners spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said: “On Monday morning, 10 January, special prison guards first attacked political and religious prisoners with tear gas, batons, and electric shocks, and severely beat those who resisted being transferred to the new security ward.”
The source added: “Some of these prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement despite being injured in the head, hands, feet, and chest. Officers also destroyed the prisoners’ personal belongings.”
According to the source, after the situation had calmed down, some of the political prisoners were released from solitary confinement and transferred to the new security ward.
“Some of the other political prisoners are still being held in solitary confinement in poor physical condition”, the source said.
Reportedly, Mojtaba Mohammadi, director-general of the prisons of West Azarbaijan province, Dariush Bakhshi, head of the Orumiyeh Central Prison, and a team from the Ministry of Intelligence were present during the raid on the ward and the beating of the prisoners of conscience.
Earlier, on 12 December 2021, all 47 inmates of the ward went on a strike to protest against the decision to transfer them to the new security ward.
They first refused to receive prison rations for five days and then went on a hunger strike for a week.
The prisoners ended their strike after meeting with the head of the prison who promised to pursue the matter and try not to relocate them to the new security ward.
Contrary to the promise of the prison head, on 10 January political and religious prisoners were taken to the new security ward, which has a smaller area and fewer facilities than the previous ward.
With the transfer of prisoners to the new ward, all their communication with other wards would be cut off.
The high-security ward has been built next to the ward for prisoners carrying out penal labour and on the area of the prison’s main bath on two floors; one for the prisoners of the military court and the ground floor for political and religious prisoners.
Also, the control and jamming systems in this ward are stronger than the previous one.
The names of all 47 prisoners of conscience are as follows:
Sirvan Hosseini Asl, Saman Hosseini Asl, Mohyeddin Tazehvared, Davoud Jabbari, Sirvan Amini, Amin Delneshin, Yaser Sharafaddin, Khaled Fereydouni, Arsalan Khodkam, Hossein Osmani, Mohyeddin Mollah-Ebrahimi, Dara Rashidi, Keyvan Rashozadeh, Kamran Ghasemi, Kamel Sidan Maskan, Anvar Chaleshi, Mohammad Saeidi, Towfiq Abdollahi, Mohammad Hosseinpour, Khosrow Zarestan, Seyyed Aram Aminol-Eslam, Farshad Fattahi, Hamed Ali Mohammad Mashkouh, Mokhtar Ebrahimi, Rahmat Daryabandeh, Siavash Javan, Mohsen Mahali, Taher Hosseinzadeh, Behzad Talaei, Hemin Chawshin, Behrouz Brakhas, Houshang Chamanbar, Hedayat Soleimanzadeh, Nayeb Askari, Ali Mohammadi Moghadam, Abdolaziz Gol-Mohammadi, Hamed Ghareh-Aghlani, Sardar Ozmash, Mohammad Birdal, Sakar Eini, Mohammad Houshangi, Farzad Samani, Firouz Musalou, Shaker Behrouzi Dizaj, Keyhan Mokarram, Hatam Ozdamir, Mehdi Saaneh Farshi
