Prison Officials in Yazd Prevent Treatment for Zeinab Jalalian

The human rights organization Hengaw reported on Tuesday, March 7, regarding Zeinab Jalalian, a political prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment, stating that she enters her eighteenth year of life imprisonment while being deprived of access to appropriate medical treatment in Yazd Central Prison despite her poor physical condition. According to the report, 42-year-old Jalalian, imprisoned in Yazd Central Prison, suffers from multiple illnesses including pterygium, oral thrush, asthma, kidney and digestive disorders, and her eyesight is at serious risk. Hengaw reported that Jalalian has spent the past 17 years (6209 days) in various prisons in Iran without even a single day of leave, and for about five months, she has been deprived of family visits by the order of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. This human rights organization pointed out that Jalalian has been exiled to Yazd prison for over four years without any legal justification and during this time, she has been deprived of even the most basic rights without adherence to the principle of separation of crimes. Hengaw added that this political prisoner, in addition to enduring severe physical and psychological torture and being repeatedly threatened with sexual assault during her interrogation, has been transferred multiple times without clear reasons between various prisons including Khoy, Evin, Kermanshah, Varamin, Kerman, and Yazd. The report indicates that last year, while handcuffed and shackled, she was subjected to continuous interrogations by several agents of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence in Yazd, who demanded that she express remorse. Hengaw emphasized that Jalalian's family, who have been under pressure for the past 17 years to silence her dire situation, have refused the security agencies' demands for interviews against Kurdish political movements despite all the pressures. Jalalian was arrested on March 7, 2008, on the road from Kamyaran to Kermanshah by the forces of the Iranian government. After being subjected to torture during interrogations, in December 2009, she was sentenced by Branch 1 of the Kermanshah Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Moradi, to one year of imprisonment for 'illegal exit from the country' and to death for 'waging war through membership in the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK).' Her death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2010. She was pardoned in November 2011, and her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. Since the victory of the 1979 revolution, many reports have been published regarding the pressure on political prisoners. Iranian officials have repeatedly denied these reports, but released political prisoners along with human rights organizations have exposed the conditions of Iranian government prisons with substantial evidence and documentation.