Kurdish political prisoner Ayub Asadi has been denied leave for medical care, although his health has been described as critical, but the Iranian courts in the cities of Kamiyaran and Sanandaj have opposed granting him leave for urgent medical care.
Asadi has been in prison for four years.
A source told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that “the Islamic Revolutionary Guards arrested Asadi and another person Mohammad Hossain Rezai near the village of Buryer in the countryside of the city of Sarwabad on 15 June 2011”.
The source said: “Prior to their arrest the Iranian forces had opened fire and wounded both of them. A Kurdish farmer nearby was also shot dead by the Iranian security forces. The guards transferred both of them to a military outpost in the city of Sarwabad, and in the evening they were taken to the city’s hospital, where they were treated while blindfold and handcuffed.”
The source said that the prisoners’ case reports “revealed that they were transferred to the detention facilities of the Intelligence Office of Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the city of Sanandaj for one month imprisonment. During these times both detainees were severely tortured and interrogated. Interrogators whipped their bodies and used electric cables on their head, feet and scrotum The torture had been so severe Asadi had fainted under torture several times because of open wounds on his body as well as constant suffering from asthma”.
The KHRN source went on to say that “they were kept for over four months in interrogation cells and they were denied all rights including contact with families. Meanwhile, the security forces had told their families that the two had been killed during efforts for their arrest.”
The source said: “After interrogations had ended Asadi was transferred to Mariwan prison where he was kept for only two weeks before being taken once again to the Intelligence Office of Mariwan, where he was questioned for two months and was taken back to the Mariwan prison.”
On 8 February 2012 Asadi was transferred to Sanandaj central prison and after three trials at the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in exile at Kashmar prison.
He and his lawyer appealed to the Court of Appeal, but contrary to all rules and regulations, they have since not heard a response from the court.
This source also said that on 17 April 2013 Asadi was transferred to the Kashmar prison. During this time he had been in a difficult physical condition because of his lumbar disc and asthma problems.
But the prison authorities had told him that because of the “sensitivity of his case, they cannot transfer him to hospital for treatment and only after paying money the prison authorities can deliver him asthma sprays”.
The source said in November 2015 he was allowed to meet his family members, but he was forced to only speak in Farsi language and prison guards were present during the his meeting with his relatives.
