Report on the Situation of Su'da Khedirzadeh, a Kurdish Political Prisoner, and Her Child
Hengaw: Sunday, August 25, 2024
Su'da Khedirzadeh, a Kurdish political prisoner held in the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison, has spent the past two years, ten months, and 12 days in detention along with her infant child. By the end of October this year, she will have served one-quarter of her 12-year prison sentence.
According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Su'da Khedirzadeh, a political prisoner from Piranshahr, and her two-year and two-month-old child, "Ala," continue to be held without the right to leave in the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison.
Sources from Hengaw inside Urmia Prison report that Ala (also known as Solina) has recently developed a skin allergy due to the extremely poor sanitary conditions, lack of proper ventilation, and intense heat within the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison. The prison authorities have prevented her from being transferred to medical facilities outside the prison.
On her only occasion of receiving leave, this political prisoner left Urmia on Saturday, May 18, 2023, to visit a relative in Piranshahr. A day later, she was arrested by agents of the Piranshahr Intelligence Department. After 48 hours of detention at the Intelligence Department's detention center in Piranshahr, the imprisoned mother and her child were returned to the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison.
Su'da Khedirzadeh had previously been sentenced by the Criminal Court of Mahabad to 12 years and six months of discretionary imprisonment on charges of "aiding and abetting the murder of a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan." This sentence was officially communicated to the family of the political prisoner on Saturday, September 6, 2022.
Having been saved from at least one suicide attempt in prison, Su'da Khedirzadeh gave birth via cesarean section on Monday, June 21, 2022, in a hospital in Urmia. She was returned to Urmia Central Prison just one day later, without completing her postpartum treatment.
Su'da Khedirzadeh was arrested by government forces in Piranshahr on Thursday, October 14, 2021, and was transferred to Urmia Central Prison on Monday, November 8, 2021.
