Kurdish civilian from Shahin Dezh
Detention date: 29 May 1994
Charged with: Membership of the KDPI
Sentence: Life sentence
Status: Released on 21 November 2019
Mohammad Nazari was detained by security forces in Bukan, West Azerbaijan province, on 29 May 1994 at the age of 23.
He was sentenced to the death penalty on charges of “membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI)”.
In December 2007, Nazari was exiled from Orumiyeh Central Prison to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj, along with two other Kurdish political prisoners named Omar Faghihpour and Khaled Fereydouni.
His death sentence was pardoned on Eid al-Adha in 2009 and dropped to a life sentence.
On 17 January 2017, the political prisoner was transferred from Rajai Shahr Prison to an unknown location under the pretext of being transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison and was later returned to Rajai Shahr Prison.
On 30 July 2017, Nazari went on a hunger strike for 99 days in Rajai Shahr Prison to protest against his “unjust imprisonment” and “non-enforcement of Article 10 of the Procedural Law” regarding his case.
Nazari was unexpectedly transferred from Rajai Shahr Prison to Orumiyeh Central Prison on 15 November 2017, along with Omar Faqihpour and Khaled Fereydoni.
After being transferred to Orumiyeh prison, he went on a hunger strike on 24 December to protest the lack of medical care in the prison. Three days later, he ended his hunger strike with a favourable promise by prison officials.
He was finally transferred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Sanandaj in March 2018 and underwent gallbladder surgery, covering the costs himself.
Nazari suffers from kidney disease and gallbladder problems, and despite being diagnosed by specialist doctors as being in urgent need of surgery, he has not yet received standard medical treatment.
In his last open letter, published by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) in late September 2019, Mohammad Nazari spoke of pressures from security institutions on his family members, the death of his mother, and the suspicious death of his brother, who was following up his case.
Nazari was released from Orumiyeh Central Prison on 21 November 2019 after serving 25 years in prison.
