A 38-year-old Kurdish man from Kermanshah died in suspicious circumstances. While police officials have attributed his death to suicide, fellow detainees claim he was tortured to death by officers.
Kamran Kazemi, a 38-year-old Kurdish man from Kermanshah, died in suspicious circumstances at the Criminal Investigation Department detention centre in Orumiyeh (Urmia), the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported.
While police officials have attributed his death to suicide, fellow detainees claim he was tortured to death by officers.
Kazemi was arrested in mid-January on charges of “theft” from the home of Peyman Khanzadeh, the head of Orumiyeh Central Prison.
He was initially held in the Criminal Investigation Department’s detention facility in Orumiyeh, before being transferred to the quarantine ward of Orumiyeh Central Prison after a few days. About a week later, however, he was transferred back to the police detention centre.
The authorities later contacted his family by telephone and told them that he had died of “suicide” after taking a large number of pills in detention.
However, other detainees held at the same time have stated that he died as a result of torture by police officers.
Every year, a number of individuals arrested by Iranian police investigative units on non-political charges are subjected to torture in detention centres across the country.
Several detainees are reported to have died in these facilities, but information about such cases is rarely made public due to threats and pressure from the authorities.
Title Photo: KHRN
