“Zeinab Jalalian Has Been Transferred to Yazd Prison”

The “Kurdistan Human Rights Network” reported on Wednesday, November 11, citing an “informed source,” that Zeinab Jalalian, a political prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment without explanation and transferred suddenly to Yazd Prison.

According to this “informed source,” Jalalian informed her family on November 10 in a two-minute phone call that she was beaten during the transfer to Yazd.

The “Kurdistan Human Rights Network” wrote about the reason for the security forces’ action: “Security forces told Zeinab Jalalian on November 9 in Kermanshah Prison that they intended to transfer her to Urmia Prison pursuant to a judicial order. However, when Zeinab realizes during the journey that she is being transferred to another city, she protests and is subjected to beatings, insults, and threats by security forces.”

Accordingly, Jalalian’s father, who resides in Makoo in West Azerbaijan, received a text message indicating that his daughter’s case file has been sent to the first branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Yazd.

The “Kurdistan Human Rights Network” report stated that Zeinab Jalalian’s physical condition is poor due to complications from infection with the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and “lack of medical attention.”

Corona in Qarchak Prison

It was previously reported that Zeinab Jalalian contracted coronavirus in Qarchak Prison.

On Monday, Reza Khandan, the husband of human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, announced that this human rights activist’s coronavirus test was positive. Sotoudeh was also imprisoned in Qarchak Prison and was temporarily released a few days ago due to physical health problems.

Nasrin Sotoudeh had previously warned about the abnormal conditions of political prisoners due to the coronavirus outbreak and went on a hunger strike to draw the world’s attention to this issue.

From One City to Another

The “Kurdistan Human Rights Network” noted in its report that on September 22, Zeinab Jalalian was transferred to Kermanshah Prison, but “due to her serious health condition, the managers of Kerman Women’s Prison initially refused to accept her, but ultimately accepted her with the intervention of the prosecutor of the general and revolutionary court of Kermanshah.”

Fatema Karimi, the director of this human rights organization, said regarding Jalalian’s further transfer: “In the last six months, this is the fourth time that Zeinab Jalalian has been transferred or rather exiled to various prisons in the country. Not only is there no deportation order in Ms. Jalalian’s sentence, but in all transfers that have taken place in the last six months, there has been no judicial ruling or legal reason.”

According to Karimi, the relocation of this prisoner is “part of a program by security institutions for the physical and psychological torture of this political prisoner and putting pressure on” her. In the view of this human rights activist, security institutions intend to force Jalalian to cooperate “and give a television interview.”

Karimi also stated that Amir Salar Davudi, one of Zeinab Jalalian’s two lawyers, is serving a prison sentence, and her second lawyer, Mohammad Sharif, has withdrawn from the case.

Zeinab Jalalian was arrested in March 2008 in Kermanshah and was sentenced to death on charges of “action against national security” and “waging war” through membership in the “Free Life Party of Kurdistan” (PJAK). This sentence, after being upheld in the appeals court in 2011, was commuted to life imprisonment with one degree of reduction.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention announced in 2016 that Jalalian’s arrest and continued imprisonment are contrary to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This human rights body called on the Islamic Republic to immediately and unconditionally release Zeinab Jalalian.