Kurdish Political Prisoner Sews Lips on Hunger Strike in Orumiyeh Prison

Mostafa Mesri, a prisoner serving time at Orumiyeh Prison on charges of “acting against national security,” has sewn his lips to demand a transfer to a prison facility near his mother’s residence.

Mostafa Mesri, a 26-year-old Kurdish political prisoner from Oshnovieh in Western Azerbaijan Province who has been in prison for the past two years, sewed his lips shut and embarked on a hunger strike on May 19 to protest Orumiyeh Central Prison officials’ lack of attention to his request for transfer to Naghadeh Prison, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

According to the human rights activist, after the political prisoner began his hunger strike, prison officials transferred him to a solitary cell and banned him from having calls or visitations with his family. The political prisoner had previously been on two hunger strikes for the same reason, and officials from the West Azerbaijan Prisons Organization had made favorable promises to him. Mostafa Mesri’s mother lives in Oshnovieh, close to Naghadeh Prison. Since his father has passed away, his mother has had to travel a very long distance to visit him at Orumiyeh Prison, and officials agreed to transfer him to the Naghadeh Prison facility; however, the transfer has not occurred.

The human rights activist added that Mostafa Mesri has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on charges of “acting against national security.” He has served a total of two years at Oshnovieh and Orumiyeh prisons.