The critical health condition of 25-year-old Kurdish political prisoner Afshin Sohrabzadeh has dangerously worsened in Minab prison in southeastern Iran, but the authorities still refuse granting him medical leave and his family is unable pay for his treatment.
‘Last week, his health situation worsened suddenly and his blood pressure dangerously lowered. He lost consciousness several times and his fellow inmates repeatedly requested urgent medical help for him but the prison authorities refused to transfer him to a hospital,” a family relatives Sohrabzadeh said in an interview with Kurdistan Human Rights network (KHRN).
The source said that “ the prison authorities said there was a lack of medical supplies inside prison to provide him appropriate care and only injected him with some medicine through the bars of his cell on Wednesday 23 March. But after the injection he began to vomit and kept bleeding and the prison authorities finally accepted the demand to transfer him to Minab hospital.”
KHRN has learnt that Sohrabzadeh was hospitalized for 24 hours before being sent back to prison.
The hospital staff had said that they cannot provide him an appropriate treatment also “due to a lack of medical mean and the prisoner must be send as soon as possible to a well-equipped hospital in Shiraz or Tehran for appropriate treatment”.
“Last year, Sohrabzadeh was transferred several times to various hospitals in Shiraz, Tehran, Bandar Abbas and Kerman. However, each time, he was sent back to prison because his family could not afford to financially afford the cost of his medical treatment,” the source added.
In October 2015, Afshin Sohrabzadeh was sent to Evin prison in Tehran and was kept there for four months inside the detention No 7 in Cell 12.
KHRN has learnt that he had been transferred to Khomeyni Shahr hospital to be auscultation, which discovered a tumor in his intestine and an extreme deterioration of his left kidney.
The medical staff had demanded the sum of 75 million of Iranian tomans for his medical care, so he was returned to prison because his family could not afford it.
He was hospitalized for 2 days in Bandar Abbas hospital in February and March.
He spent 10 days in hospitals in Shiraz and 3 days in Kerman before being transferred back to Minab prison.
The 25-year-old political prisoner is from Kermanshah.
He was arrested on 8 June 2010 in Kamyaran by the armed forces of Iranian Intelligence Ministry.
He was harshly tortured during interrogations resulting in his nose being badly broken as well as groin hernia due to the constant beating by the prison guards.
He was transferred twice to Sanandaj hospital during this period.
He was later charged with “Moharebeh’ (enmity against God) for his membership in an outlawed Kurdish political party.
The branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
His jail sentence was doubled as well as forced exile to Minab city far from his relatives.
He was transferred from Sanandaj to Minab in February 2012.
His family struggled to obtain him a leave on bail for medical reasons although they went to Sanandaj, Kamran and Minab courts several times.
Last year, Minab prosecutor accepted to release him on bail but Kamyaran prosecutor refused.
The governor of Minab prison wrote to the prosecutor demanding that he asks the judge to revoke the decision Sohrabzadeh’s exile and to send him to another prison with better health conditions and medical equipment.
However, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj rejected the request and refused to understand the dangerously deteriorating health of the Kurdish political prisoner.
