Kurdish political prisoner Ashkan Fahim denied urgent medical care in Mahabad Prison
Hengaw – Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Ashkan Fahim, a Kurdish political prisoner serving his sentence in Mahabad Central Prison, is being denied essential medical treatment despite suffering from serious health conditions. Repeated requests for conditional release and medical furlough have been rejected by security authorities without legal justification.
According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Fahim’s health has deteriorated significantly. He suffers from heart disease, chronic headaches, and vision problems, yet prison authorities have refused to transfer him to an outside medical facility or grant him medical leave.
Sources confirmed that even though the prison doctor has verified his vision issues, the authorities continue to block any treatment outside the prison. Mahabad Prison’s infirmary lacks adequate medical equipment, and officials have denied him even hourly leave to visit an ophthalmologist.
Fahim was sentenced in December 2023 by Branch 1 of the Mahabad Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Dousti, to 45 months in prison and two years of exile on charges of “assembly and collusion.” Despite his deteriorating health, the judiciary has refused to accept bail for his temporary release.
The political prisoner was violently arrested on September 15, 2023, at his home in Mahabad’s Meydan Esteghlal neighborhood by IRGC forces. He spent three months in the IRGC Intelligence Detention Center at Al-Mahdi Barracks in Urmia, where he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture to extract forced confessions.
