Urmia: Kurdish political prisoner sentenced to death

engaw: A member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party armed wing who was arrested by Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces in 2019 has been sentenced to death by the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

According to the report received by the human rights organization Hengaw, the Kurdish political prisoner Hatem Özdemir, 25 years old and a citizen of Agri (Turkish Kurdistan), was tried by the first compartment of the Iranian Revolutionary Court in Khoy and sentenced to death on charges of "armed insurgency" through his membership in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

According to an informed source, the sentence was communicated to the prisoner on March 15, 2022.

Hatem Özdemir was arrested in injured condition on January 3, 2019 after an armed clash between IRGC forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and PKK guerrilla fighters in a region called Boralan in Mako, West Azerbaijan province.

The prisoner was transferred to the city's prison in Urmia on August 19, 2019, after a questioning at a Iranian Revolutionary Guards detention center and was held in the political prisoner's section.

Hengaw has been informed in recent months that Hatem Özdemir is suffering from kidney pain and has been denied the right to a medical examination outside of prison.