Kurdish political prisoner Kamal Sharifi, who had previously suffered a heart attack, has been taken to the Payambar Azam Medical and Research Complex in southern Bandar Abbas on 7 March. After undergoing angioplasty, he has been returned to prison before the completion of his treatment.


Sharifi, who has been serving the 13th year of his 30-year prison sentence in internal exile in Minab Prison of Hormozgan province, had suffered a heart attack on 1 March and was taken to the city hospital. He had been returned to prison after four days in hospital without completing his treatment.


A source close to the prisoner’s family spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) about Sharifi’s latest health condition. “On 7 March, this political prisoner, who had previously suffered a heart attack, was transferred to the Payambar Azam Hospital in Bandar Abbas for angioplasty. After this procedure, despite the need for more treatment, he was returned to Minab Prison after two days.”


According to this source, keeping Sharifi in the overcrowded Minab Prison that lacks necessary facilities for treatment, has endangered his health.


Kamal Sharifi, who comes from Saqqez, was arrested by the forces of the Intelligence Office on 25 May 2008. Security forces opened fire while arresting him and killed one of his companions. He was interrogated for six months in the detention centre of the Intelligence Office of Sanandaj on charges of “membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan” and was subjected to physical and mental torture to make forced confessions.


On 10 November 2008, Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Saqqez, presided over by Judge Shayegh, sentenced Sharifi to 30 years in prison and internal exile to Minab Prison on charges of “enmity against God” through an armed uprising against the Islamic government and membership in the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-Iran), citing Articles 186 and 190 of the Iranian Islamic Penal Code.


According to the indictment, a copy of which is available to the KHRN, the political prisoner “does not have the right to associate and interact with others while serving his sentence and is denied of the benefits of meeting and corresponding with others. He also has to serve the entire sentence in prison”.


Since his arrest, Kamal Sharifi has only once been able to meet with his family. The meeting was made possible with him going on hunger strike after his transfer to Minab Prison.