Kurdish political prisoner Shaker Baghi has been sent on temporary leave for medical treatment from Kashmar Prison in Iran’s northeastern Khorasan-e Razavi province.
He has been sent on leave in the 14th year of his imprisonment on a two billion Iranian Tomans – nearly 80,000 USD – bail.
Baghi’s temporary release came after the approval of Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj in the northwestern province of Kurdistan on 22 January.
Over the past few years, although several psychiatrists had confirmed that he could not serve his sentence in prison, he was not allowed to go on leave due to opposition from the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj.
Background
On 10 March 2018, forces of the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj arrested Baghi, who is a Kurdish civilian of Turkish nationality, on the Sanandaj-Marivan road.
The officers butt-stroke him to the head, causing him to lose consciousness, and took him to the detention centre of the intelligence ministry in Sanandaj.
After several months of interrogation in the security detention centres of the Ministry of Intelligence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Sanandaj and Kermanshah, Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj – presided over by Judge Hassan Babaei – sentenced Baghi to 30 years in prison and internal exile in Kashmar Prison in Khorasan-e Razavi province.
The court charged Baghi with “membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)”.
As his lawyer appealed against the verdict, the Public Prosecutor of Sanandaj also objected to the ruling and demanded the accused be punished in the most severe way.
Eventually, Branch 4 of the Court of Appeal of Kurdistan province upheld the sentence and Baghi was exiled to Kashmar Prison from Sanandaj Central Prison in mid-August 2009.
