Kurdish political prisoners Vahid Chavaran, Nasser Rezaei and Mohammad Hassan Hasseli, who were arrested during the anti-government ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi’ uprising in Iran, have been secretly transferred to remote prisons across Iran.
Kurdish political prisoners Vahid Chavaran, Nasser Rezaei and Mohammad Hassan Hasseli, who were sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in exile following their arrest during the anti-government ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi’ (Woman, Life, Freedom) uprising, have been secretly transferred to remote prisons across Iran.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported that on 4 May, Chavaran, Rezaei and Hasseli were transferred from Ilam Central Prison to Zahedan Prison in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Kerman Prison in Kerman Province and Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province, respectively, without prior notification to their families.
On the same day, a fellow prisoner called their families to inform them of their transfer.
On 8 January 2024, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Ilam, presided over by Judge Rajab Mohammad, sentenced each of them to 12 years of imprisonment in exile on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “acting against national security”.
Their sentences were later upheld by the Supreme Court in February 2024.
On 4 September 2023, the three went on a hunger strike in protest at their continued detention in the pre-trial detention centre of Ilam Prison, sewing their lips shut the next day.
Chavaran, a mountaineer from Sarabbagh, was arrested by security forces while trying to leave the country on 23 June 2023 and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Ilam.
Rezaei, from Abdanan, Ilam Province, was arrested on 13 August 2023 after being summoned to court in Dehloran, Ilam Province. He was also briefly detained by security forces on 22 May 2023.
Hasseli, from Sarabbagh in Ilam Province, was arrested by security forces on 26 July 2023.
