Kurdish political prisoner Omid Saeidi, who started a hunger strike on 4 July by sewing his lips in protest against the opposition of the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan province, to his temporary leave, was threatened with transfer to another city.
The threats of exile came during a meeting on the third day of Saeidi’s hunger strike when he met Khoy Posecutor Yaghoub Rashtbar and Khoy Prison Head Safar Tavarizadeh.
The two officials threatened to send him to a prison in Jolfa or Kermanshah if the strike continued.
The political prisoner said that he will continue his hunger strike until he is sent on temporary leave.
In the letter to prison authorities on 4 July, Saeidi wrote that he was transferred to Khoy prison from Orumiyeh Central Prison four months ago, and that despite the Prison Classification Council’s approval of his temporary leave and the provision of 15 billion rials – nearly 30,000 USD – in bail, the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh has opposed his release.
Saeidi was arrested on 8 October 2019 along with four other civilians, Nayeb Hajizadeh, Kamran Ghasemi, Keyvan Rashozadeh, and Abdolaziz Mohammadpour, by security forces and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Orumiyeh.
After a month of interrogation, they were transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
In December 2020, Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced each to ten years and one day in prison on charges of “acting against national security” through “membership in the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan.”
Saeidi’s sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court after his appeal, while the sentences of the other three were reduced to seven years and six months in prison.
