Kurdish political prisoner Bahman Dalayi Milan was transferred from solitary confinement at the ward 12 (political prisoners’ ward) at Orumiyeh prison and ended his hunger strike on 10 January, a source told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
“On 12 October 2015, Bahman Dalayi Milan was transferred from Khoy prison to Orumiyeh central prison. The governor of Orumiyeh prison ordered his transfer to ward 5 known under the name of ‘psychological ward’, where he was kept among prisoners under methadone,” the source said.
“On 31 December, Milan and one of his fellow inmate Raof Mohamad Ali, wrote a letter to announce their decision of going on a hunger strike,” the source said.
In the letter, seen by KHRN, the two prisoners denounced their transfer to ward 5, demanded the implementation of the rule of separation between political prisoners and common law prisoners and asked for their transfer to the ward of political prisoners.
“But instead of respecting their claims, the prison authorities transferred both of them to dissimilar solitary confinement cells,” the source said.
“After 24 hours and the promise of listening to their demands, Ali had ended his hunger strike and returned to ward 5, but Milan decided to continue his hunger strike for their demands” the source said.
The source added: “Milan also ended his hunger strike after 10 days when the authorities finally accepted his demand to be transferred to the ward of political prisoners.”
The source also provided KHRN with background information about those two political prisoners, saying that Ali is a Kurdish citizen who lived in Orumiyeh before his arrest, but he originally comes from the city of Sulaimaniyah (an Iraqi Kurdish city in the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq).
He had been arrested in April 2015 by Iranian security forces and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of “taking actions against national security”
He had gone on hunger strike on 21 October 2015 to demand his transfer from ward 10 to ward 12.
But the authorities had transferred him to solitary confinement and finally to ward 5.
Milan comes from Makou, he had been arrested in April 2006 in Mariwan and sentenced to 10 years behind bars on charges of membership in an outlawed Kurdish political party.
He was held in Mariwan prison for five years and the authorities accepted his request to be transferred to Khoy prison (closer to his hometown).
He was detained in Khoy four years and five months prior to being transferred to the Orumiyeh prison.
