Kurdish Political Prisoner Transferred To Drug Traffickers’ Ward

A local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that on 21 May, Orumiyeh Prison authorities transferred Kurdish political prisoner Jahangir Badozadeh to the drug traffickers’ ward. The source added that authorities were previously keeping him in solitary confinement.

The source claimed that the prisoner, sentenced to life in prison, filed a grievance with the Prisons Inspection Office in Western Azerbaijan Province after his family was verbally abused and threatened during a visit. Instead of investigating his grievance, however, authorities transferred him to the prison’s Quarantine Ward on 6 May. During his 15-day detention inside the Quarantine Ward, Badozadeh was banned from having visitors or calling his family.

According to the source, Badozadeh has been in prison since 2004. A Mahabad court first sentenced him to death on charges of “participation in murder” and “cooperating with Kurdish parties.” Badozadeh maintains that his case file has been fabricated. After he appealed the ruling, he was acquitted of the murder charge due to lack of sufficient evidence. He was sentenced to life in prison on the charge of “cooperating with Kurdish political parties.”

The source told the Campaign that Badozadeh’s son, Bijan Badozadeh, was killed in Mahabad in February 2006, and his other son, Mohammad Badozadeh, was killed by the IRGC in the summer of 2011 at Ghandil border between Iran and Iraq, adding that both Badozadeh sons were PJAK members. Badozadeh’s only daughter committed suicide after hearing her father’s earlier death sentence.