Khaled Zamani (Sadegh Zamani) is married and a father of four.

Zamani was arrested by security forces in Qatur in Khoy County, West Azerbaijan Province, on 30 June 2008 and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Khoy.

He was subjected to physical and psychological torture for several weeks to extract forced confessions and was later transferred to Maku Prison.

Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Khoy, presided over by Judge Nowrouzi, sentenced Zamani to “amputation of the left hand and right foot” on charges of “enmity against God” (Moharebeh) through membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).

After an appeal, the Supreme Court overturned the sentence, and the Court of Appeals in West Azerbaijan Province converted it to 30 years imprisonment in exile in Yazd Central Prison.

His lawyer applied for a retrial based on the new Islamic Penal Code several years ago, but this request was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Zamani was exiled from Maku Prison to Yazd Central Prison on 21 December 2009. Since his arrest, he has been denied furlough.

Despite serving more than half of his sentence and the prison classification council’s approval, he has been denied conditional release due to the opposition of the office of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Khoy.

– Zamani is one of the co-defendants of Fasih Yasamani, who was sentenced to death on a similar charge and executed in Khoy Prison on 8 January 2010.

Notes:

1. Article 279 of the Islamic Penal Code: “Moharebeh (enmity against God) is defined as drawing a weapon with the intention of killing, stealing from, or intimidating people in a way that causes insecurity in the environment.” According to Article 282 of the Islamic Penal Code, “if a person commits the crime of moharebeh, they will be sentenced to crucifixion, execution, amputation of the right hand and left foot, or exile, at the discretion of the judge.”

2. The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) was established in 2004 in the Qandil Mountains along the border of Iraqi Kurdistan with Iranian Kurdistan. This party follows the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and bases its activities on the paradigm of a “democratic and ecological society based on women’s freedom”.

According to the party’s charter, PJAK considers the establishment of democratic confederalism and a political form of democratic self-governance for organising people to build a “democratic nation” as one of its fundamental goals. PJAK also participated in the establishment of the East Kurdistan Democratic and Free Society (KODAR). The headquarters of this party is in the mountainous areas between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan.