Kurdish political prisoner Nayeb Askari has begun a hunger strike by sewing his lips in protest at being denied family visits and prison leave.
Askari, who has been serving a 15-year sentence at Orumiyeh Central Prison for five years, sewed his lips on 13 December and formally notified prison authorities of his hunger strike, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has reported.
In a letter to prison officials, he said that he had been barred from family visits for the past year for reasons that had not been specified, and that repeated requests for temporary leave had received no response.
He stated that he launched the hunger strike after the prison authorities failed to address his requests and follow-ups.
Background
Askari, who comes from Orumiyeh, was arrested by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the city on 24 March 2021.
He was held for about three months in the IRGC’s Al-Mahdi detention centre in Orumiyeh, where he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture in order to extract forced confessions. He was also denied access to a lawyer and contact with his family during this period.
After the interrogation period ended, he was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
His arrest came after he had lived for several years in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and returned to Iran upon coordination between an IRGC member named Hossein Khosh-Maram and the IRGC Intelligence Organisation, after receiving a so-called “safe-conduct letter”.
After his arrest, the IRGC Intelligence Organisation announced that he had been sentenced to death in absentia in 2018 by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) through membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).
Following his objection, the death sentence was overturned, the charge was amended to “armed insurrection” (baghi), and the case was referred to Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh.
In 2023, while still denied legal representation, Askari was transferred six times for court hearings, but proceedings were held on only four occasions because of the judge’s absence.
The final hearing took place on 27 September 2023, and on 16 October 2023 he was formally notified in prison of a renewed death sentence on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). He responded by staging a brief hunger strike that month.
After an appeal, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling for a second time and referred the case to a parallel branch.
In mid-October 2024, Askari was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 900 million rials on the same charge.
Additionally, in August 2021, following a clash between political prisoners and inmates convicted of ordinary crimes, Askari and two other Kurdish political prisoners, Keyhan Mokarram and Nayeb Hajizadeh, were sentenced to 50 lashes and three months in prison for “disrupting prison order”.
The charges were brought after a Kurdish political prisoner was assaulted by inmates convicted of ordinary crimes.
Askari has also previously staged prolonged hunger strikes in detention. From 26 July 2021, he refused food for 32 days to protest the authorities’ failure to issue a judicial order allowing his transfer to an external hospital for essential medical examinations and treatment.