Hatem Ozdemir, a Kurdish political prisoner whose death sentence was overturned by the Iranian Supreme Court in March, was transferred from Orumiyeh Central Prison to an undisclosed location on 23 June, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.

The political prisoner was reportedly handed over to security forces after being summoned to the prison’s security office.

Ozdemir has been suffering from kidney stones since his arrest, but the authorities at Orumiyeh Central Prison have denied him medical care, despite doctors and ultrasound results suggesting that he needs surgery.

On 2 July 2019, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces from the Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohada base in Orumiyeh ambushed a group of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members in the border areas of Chaldoran, West Azerbaijan province, north-west Iran.

Ozdemir was knocked unconscious by a mortar shell during the shooting and shelling. He was arrested and taken to the Intelligence Organisation of the IRGC detention centre in Orumiyeh.

After initial interrogations, the prisoner was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison on 19 August 2019.

In March 2022, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Khoy sentenced Ozdemir to death and five years imprisonment after he had been detained for 33 months.

He was tried without the right to a lawyer and charged with “armed insurrection” and “membership of a terrorist group”.

The case was referred to the Supreme Court following his appeal against the sentence.

In March 2023, Branch Nine of the Supreme Court overturned Ozdemir’s death sentence and referred the case to the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province, for retrial.