Kurdish Political Prisoner Hamid Hosseinnejad Heydaranlu at Imminent Risk of Execution

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, Hamid Hosseinnejad Heydaranlu, a Kurdish political prisoner held in Urmia (Darya) Central Prison, was transferred to solitary confinement on 16 April, in preparation for his execution.

Earlier today, Hamid’s last visit with his family took place while he was handcuffed.

Osman Mosayen, the political prisoner’s lawyer, said: “We have filed a request for retrial to stop his execution. Because Hamid is illiterate, he couldn't file the clemency request himself. After the visit, he was returned to solitary confinement.”

The lawyer added: “In 2017, eight border guards were killed in a village in West Azerbaijan Province. In 2022, Hamid Hosseinnejad Heydaranlu was arrested at his home in his own village on charges of smuggling goods. Initially, he was charged with smuggling, but later he was accused of involvement in that terrorist attack. Hamid spent 12 months in the solitary confinement cells of the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Urmia, without access to a solicitor, phone, or his family. Hamid is completely illiterate. The interrogation documents are entirely in the handwriting of the interrogator, and he merely signed them. In his first appearance before the investigator, he explicitly denied the charges, saying, ‘I did not commit this act; on that day, I was abroad.’ The armed clash reportedly occurred around 3 am, but he stated that by 11 am that same day, he had already crossed the border with his family—including his elderly mother, wife, and two children—into Turkey, with valid passports.”

Hamid Hosseinnejad Heydaranlu is 40 years old and from the Chaldoran region of Urmia where he was arrested by border forces along with several Afghan nationals on 13 April 2023 After his arrest, he was transferred to the Foreign Nationals Detention Centre and later to Ministry of Intelligence facilities in Urmia. He was held in solitary confinement for 12 months, where he was subjected to physical and psychological torture to compel him to confess to collaborating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and involvement in the 2017 armed conflict that resulted in the death of eight border forces.