(15 February 2012) — Seven Kurdish political prisoners in Orumieh prison, some of whom were placed in solitary confinement last December, have been transferred to an unknown location.
According to sources close to these inmates, on Tuesday, February 14, counter intelligence forces in Orumieh central prison searched the personal belongings of seven political prisoners—Habibollah Golparipour, Jahangir Baduzadeh, Ahmad Tamou’i, Yousef Kakehmami, Ali Ahmad Soleiman, Mostafa Ali Ahmad, and Yousef Rahmanipour—in Ward 12, the section that houses political prisoners. After the search, the forces took these prisoners out of the ward and moved them to an unknown location.
In reviewing this report, the family of one of the prisoners said they contacted the authorities of the prison to ask the reasons for this transfer and for the whereabouts of these prisoners. However the authorities have not yet given a response.
A previous release from the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center reported that six prisoners from Ward 12—including some of those transferred yesterday—were sent to solitary confinement on December 5, 2011. They were kept in the prison’s solitary confinement, informally referred to as the “[hotel] suite”, for more than two weeks under pressure and threats from security forces. These forces also threatened Habibollah Golparipour with a warning that they would implement his death sentence.