"Deliberately denied" access to treatment; Amnesty International warns about Kamal Sharifi's condition

On Thursday, February 27, Amnesty International issued a call for urgent action, expressing concern about the situation of Kamal Sharifi, a Kurdish political prisoner in Iran.

This human rights organization has addressed Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of Iran's judiciary, and called for the immediate release of this political prisoner.

Amnesty International says that given Kamal Sharifi's poor physical condition, his life would be at risk if he contracted COVID-19.

Kamal Sharifi suffered a heart attack in prison in March last year and was deprived of necessary medical care after undergoing surgery.

According to the organization, he also suffers from digestive disease, joint pain, and gum recession, and faces irreparable harm due to "prolonged and deliberate deprivation" of access to essential and specialized medical services.

The announcement states that Kamal Sharifi, 49, who has been in prison since June 2008, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison and exile to Minab Prison by the Saqqez Revolutionary Court on charges of "moharebeh" through "membership in the Kurdistan Democratic Party."

Amnesty International says that this political prisoner was sentenced to this severe punishment after an unfair trial, in a five-minute trial, based on "confessions forced under torture."

According to the court ruling, Kamal Sharifi has been deprived of some of the rights of a prisoner, including leave and visits with his family, which has caused him severe psychological harm.

This human rights organization has called on the head of Iran's judiciary to investigate this political prisoner's complaint regarding torture and other ill-treatment in prison, as well as the reason for his deprivation of appropriate medical facilities.

Amnesty International wrote in its statement that in many cases, officials of the judiciary and the Prisons Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran deliberately deprive political and conscientious prisoners of access to appropriate medical facilities, which is a "cruel act aimed at intimidating and doubly punishing prisoners."

"Ill-treatment" in prisons and the deprivation of political prisoners from proper medical facilities is an issue that has been repeatedly criticized by the United Nations and human rights defenders.

These deprivations have in some cases even led to the death of some political prisoners, including the death of imprisoned poet Bektash Abtin.

The Iranian Writers' Association called the death of its member "murder" and announced that the failure to address Bektash Abtin's condition and his late transfer to the hospital after contracting the coronavirus were the causes of the writer's death.