Sudden and Suspicious Death of Kurdish Political Prisoner, Months After Release from Ardabil Prison
Hassan JoojehGolavani, a Kurdish political prisoner from Piranshahr, who had been released from A
Hengaw; Monday, September 4, 2023
Hassan JoojehGolavani, a Kurdish political prisoner from Piranshahr, who had been released from Ardabil Central Prison after serving a five-year sentence, tragically lost his life under suspicious circumstances. Notably, security authorities hindered any autopsy on his body.
According to reports obtained by the Hengaw organization for Human Rights, on the morning of Thursday, August 31st, 2023, Hassan JoojehGolavani, a former political prisoner and resident of Piranshahr, passed away only a few months after his release from Ardabil Central Prison.
An informed source stated that In a shocking turn of events, Hassan's sister discovered his dead body when she entered his room to wake him up.
The informed source further revealed that the family, upon finding Hassan's lifeless body, promptly contacted the Emergency response Organizations. However, the dispatched response personnel declared no need for a forensic examination, and on the same day, without adhering the family's request for an autopsy, the burial ceremony was held.
A family member of JoojehGolavani, while confirming this tragic incident to Hengaw, stated, "Security authorities forced us to bury Hassan immediately and did not allow us to take his body to a forensics for examination and declared the cause of death as a heart attack."
The family members added that Hassan JoojehGolavani had no prior history of heart disease.
Given that Hassan had been deprived of furlough rights until the completion of his full five-year imprisonment term, and given the Islamic Republic's history of silencing dissent through covert measures, his sudden death raises strong suspicions regarding both his physical and mental well-being following his release.
Simultaneously with the suspicious death of Hassan JoojehGolavani, on Thursday, August 31st, 2023, Javad Roohi, a 35-year-old Kurdish political prisoner from Amol in Mazandaran Province, also died under ambiguous circumstances in Noshahr Prison. Reports alleging severe physical and psychological torture further amplify concerns regarding his death, prompting human rights activists and organizations to call for international investigations into these incidents.
Hassan JoojehGolavani from PiranShahar and was the head of an IRGC border patrol base prior to his arrest on Saturday, May 19th, 2019, by the intelligence forces of the Revolutionary Guards in Urmia.
On Wednesday, May 1st, 2018, he was sentenced by the Second Branch of the Urmia Revolutionary Court, presided by chief Judge Sheikhloo, on charges of "spying for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan." To five years imprisonment in exile in Ardabil prison, The sentence was confirmed by the provincial appellate court.
It is important to note that this political prisoner spent 25 days in solitary confinement in the intelligence cells of the Revolutionary Guards and was deprived of the right to legal representation during the court proceedings
