Two Political Prisoners Launch Hunger Strike in Urmia Central Prison

Two political prisoners named Ibrahim Khalili Hamadani and Salar Khalili Hamadani, who have recently each been sentenced to 16 years in prison, launched a hunger strike in Urmia Central Prison in protest of their sentences.

The Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported on Tuesday, October 9, that Ibrahim Khalili Hamadani and his son Salar Khalili Hamadani, who were previously sentenced to a total of 32 years in prison by the Second Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Urmia on charges of “membership in the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran” and “propaganda against the system,” began a hunger strike on Wednesday, September 24, in protest of the issued verdict.

The court session for these two political prisoners was held on September 18, and the verdict was delivered on Tuesday, October 2, to Ibrahim and Salar Khalili Hamadani, who are detained in the psychiatric ward of Urmia Central Prison.

According to the verdict, each of these individuals was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the charge of “membership in the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran” and one year in prison for the charge of “propaganda against the system.”

Ibrahim Khalili Hamadani, along with his two children named Salar and Maryam, was arrested on March 25, 2019, by security forces in Urmia and, after undergoing interrogation at the Information Office detention facility of the city, was transferred to Urmia Central Prison. Maryam Khalili Hamadani was temporarily released on April 25 on bail of 250 million tomans pending the completion of legal proceedings.

Previously, Peiman Mirzazadeh, a Kurdish singer from Urmia who is serving his sentence in Urmia Prison, launched a hunger strike in the prison in early August of this year in protest of the execution of a sentence of 100 lashes and a two-year prison sentence issued against him on charges of “acting against national security” and “propaganda against the system.”

Last February, Amnesty International in a report named 2018 a “year of shame” for the Islamic Republic and announced that in that year more than seven thousand people, including protest participants, students, journalists, women’s rights activists, environmental activists, labor activists, and ethnic and religious minority rights activists, were arrested in Iran.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly and in various instances condemned violent confrontations and widespread suppression of protesters, as well as repeated and ongoing violations of the rights of Iranian citizens, including the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, as well as the rights of women and children by the ruling regime of that country.

Source: Voice of America