The Ministry of Intelligence has summoned some of the families of political prisoners in Orumiyeh Central Prison and interrogated them following the pressure on the prisoners.
Also, in the last few days, the prosecutor of Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan province, visited the ward of political prisoners and called them “separatists and terrorists” and threatened them with exile to prisons in other cities.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that the brother and mother of Kurdish political prisoner Kamran Ghasemi were summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence and interrogated for several hours.
Security investigators pressured the family to cut off phone calls to the prisoner and not to go to the prison to request visits.
In the wake of these pressures, Kamran Ghasemi and death-row political prisoner Nayeb Askari have been denied family visits in recent months, and prison officials have conditioned the visits on the approval of the intelligence ministry.
Also in the past days, Hossein Majidi, the prosecutor of Orumiyeh, visited the Orumiyeh Central Prison, calling Kurdish political prisoners accused of “acting against national security” through membership in Kurdish opposition parties “separatists and terrorists” and threatened them with exile to prisons in other cities.
In addition, Arsalan Khodkam, a Kurdish political prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment, was summoned to the special office of the Ministry of Intelligence in the prison and interrogated for several hours.
Kamran Ghasemi
Kamran Ghasemi, who comes from Orumiyeh, was arrested by security forces on 8 October 2019.
He was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison after a month of interrogation at the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in the city.
In December 2020, Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced Ghasemi and two of his co-defendants, Keyvan Rashozadeh and Omid Saeidi, to 10 years and one day in prison, each.
It charged the civilians with “acting against national security” through “membership” in the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
The sentence was later commuted to seven years and six months in prison.
Arsalan Khodkam
Arsalan Khodkam, a 48-year-old from Mahabad, West Azerbaijan province, is a former member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) who returned to Iran years ago after leaving the party and receiving a safe-conduct from Iran.
On 22 April 2018, Khodkam was arrested by IRGC forces, accused of “espionage in favour of the KDPI”, and was interrogated for 36 days in the IRGC’s 81 Ramadan detention centre at the Al-Mahdi base in Orumiyeh.
Interrogators also detained his wife Nashmil Gheytasi to pressure Khodkam and obtain forced “confessions” from him.
Under psychological pressures and physical torture, the political prisoner was forced to accept the accusations made by the Intelligence Organisation of the IRGC of “having connections with and espionage for the KDPI”.
Khodkam’s trial was held on 14 July 2018 in Branch One of the Orumiyeh Military Court without the right to a lawyer.
On the same day, he was sentenced to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “espionage for the KDPI”.
Following the political prisoner’s appeal against the ruling, the case was referred to Branch 32 of the Supreme Court of Iran for reconsideration, but it was upheld on 17 September of the same year.
Nayeb Askari
Nayeb Askari was arrested in Orumiyeh on 24 March 2021 by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He was sent to Orumiyeh Central Prison after spending three months in the detention facility of the IRGC’s intelligence organisation.
In April 2023, Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced Askari to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) through “membership” in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).
He was sentenced to death in absentia by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumieh in 2018 on the same charge, which after his protest, was violated and referred to Branch Two of the Revolutionary Court.
In 2018, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced him to death on the same charge in absentia.
The sentence was overturned after his appeal against the ruling and was referred to the second branch of the court.
