From Sarekaniye in the Kurdish region of Syria

Detention date: 28 August 2014

Charged with: Membership in the PKK and enmity against God for killing a member of the IRGC

Sentence: Seven years in prison and the death penalty

Current status: Released from Orumiyeh Central Prison and returned to Damascus on 26 July 2020

Kamal Hassan Ramazan, born on 1 January 1990 and from Sarekaniye (also Ras al-Ain) in the Kurdish region of Syria also known as Rojava, was arrested by security forces in Orumiyeh on 28 August 2014.

After being interrogated for three months in the detention centres of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh, he was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison.

In August 2015, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh on charges of membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The sentence was later reduced to seven years in prison.

Although his trial was finalised, Ramazan was several times transferred to security detention centres in Orumiyeh over the recent years, and interrogated for the accusation of “killing a member of the IRGC in the summer of 2011”.

In 2017, he was summoned to the Enforcement of Judgements Office of the Orumiyeh Central Prison, following the successive cases created by security institutions against him. The political prisoner was then sentenced to the death penalty.

It should be noted that this sentence was previously given to a person identified as “Kamal Sur” in absentia in November 2011 by Branch 3 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh. Then the Ministry of Intelligence introduced Kamal Hassan Ramazan as “Kamal Sur” due to the similarity of their names.

In August 2016, following Ramazan’s sudden transfer to the detention centre of the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC and the possibility of his execution, Amnesty International issued a statement expressing concern over his condition, calling for an immediate halt to his death sentence.

Despite the end of his interrogation and imprisonment periods, Ramazan was several times transferred from Orumiyeh Central Prison to security detention centres in the city.

The political prisoner was taken to the detention centres of the Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organisation of the IRGC in December 2016 for eight days, in January 2017 for 10 days, in December 2017 for seven days, in August 2018 for eight days, in June 2019 for one week, and on 7 September 2019 for a week. He was forced to make false confessions for the creation of a new case.

Ramazan was released from Orumiyeh Central Prison and returned to Damascus on 26 July 2020 after his lawyer Mohammad Saleh Nikbakht presented evidence to the court proving that his client was imprisoned due to the similarity of his name with a person named Kamal Sur.