Kurdish political prisoner Khaled Zamani, who is currently serving the 17th year of a 30-year sentence in Yazd Central Prison, has been denied temporary leave despite approval by the authorities.
The Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has prevented the temporary leave of Kurdish political prisoner Khaled Zamani, despite the approval of the prison authorities and the prosecutor in Yazd Province, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported.
Zamani, who is currently serving the 17th year of a 30-year sentence in Yazd Central Prison, had received permission for a temporary leave from the prison’s Classification Council and the city’s prosecutor.
His family also provided a substantial bail of 100 billion rials (nearly 125,000 USD). However, the IRGC’s intelligence branch intervened to block his release.
Zamani has consistently been denied both conditional release and furlough due to opposition from the IRGC.
This is not the first time that Zamani has been denied his legal rights. Despite having served more than half of his sentence, previous applications for conditional release have also been denied due to interference by the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization.
Zamani was arrested by security forces on 30 June 2008 and interrogated and severely tortured for several weeks at the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Khoy, West Azerbaijan Province.
Later, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Khoy – presided over by Judge Nowrouzi – sentenced Zamani to “amputation of the left arm and the right leg” on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) through alleged membership of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).
However, following his appeal, the Supreme Court overturned the sentence.
Later, in a retrial, the Appeals Court of West Azerbaijan Province sentenced him to 30 years’ imprisonment and exile in Yazd Central Prison.
Following the confirmation of the sentence, Zamani was transferred from Maku Prison to Yazd Central Prison on 21 December 2009.
Despite persistent efforts by his lawyer in recent years to obtain a retrial under a new provision of the Islamic Penal Code, the request was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Zamani is a co-defendant of Fasih Yasamani, another Kurdish political prisoner, who was executed in Khoy Prison on 8 January 2010.
