60-year-old Kurdish civil rights activist Ghader Kharamanfar, who has been in custody since December 2024, is suffering from coronary artery disease, fatty liver, high blood pressure, and knee osteoarthritis.
Ghader Kharamanfar, a 60-year-old Kurdish civil rights activist held without charge, has been denied medical treatment in Mahabad Prison despite suffering from several serious chronic health conditions, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported.
Kharamanfar, who has been in custody since December 2024, is suffering from coronary artery disease, fatty liver, high blood pressure, and knee osteoarthritis.
Both prison doctors and a specialist physician have described his health as “concerning”, emphasising the urgent need for his hospitalisation outside prison facilities.
According to KHRN, the political prisoner was transferred in handcuffs and shackles to a hospital in Mahabad on 19 June, where he was examined by a specialist doctor for only one hour. Despite the physician’s diagnosis that he required hospitalisation and immediate treatment, he was sent back to Mahabad Prison after being given only medication.
KHRN has also learned that his continued detention under a temporary order is due to opposition from the Ministry of Intelligence and the Mahabad Prosecutor’s Office, despite the fact that he has been confined for more than six months.
Kharamanfar, from Mahabad in West Azerbaijan Province, was arrested without a warrant by Ministry of Intelligence agents on 15 December 2024 during a wave of arrests targeting Kurdish activists and civilians.
He was initially held in the Ministry’s detention centre in Orumiyeh before being transferred to Mahabad Prison two months later.
On 4 February 2025, Hajar Amiya, the wife of an activist, was summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence office in Mahabad, where she was interrogated and threatened for several hours.
Officials warned her that her continued activism would result in the arrest and house detention of other family members.
Agents also contacted her children using her mobile phone and issued threats to them.
Kharamanfar has been repeatedly summoned and arrested by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence in Mahabad in recent years.
One of his children, Aram Kharamanfar, was also expelled from Maragheh University a few years ago as part of the continuing pressure on the family.
