Sanandaj Central Prison riot leaves at least 20 inmates injured including Kurdish political prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi.
A large prison riot broke out on Friday, June 15, 2018 at the Central Prison of Sanandaj last night following an attempt by several corrections officers to transfer Ramin Hossein Panahi to solitary confinement. About 20 prisoners including Ramin Hossein Panahi are wounded and the entire facility is under lockdown.
The 22-year-old was sentenced to death in January for “taking up arms against the state.”
His execution was previously scheduled for 3 May and he was transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for it. However, the authorities postponed the execution and moved him out of solitary confinement in the Central Prison in Sanandaj, the capital city of Iran’s Kurdistan Province, following international outcry by the UN and human rights groups over his scheduled execution.
Ramin Hossein Panahi’s lawyer learned on 17 May that his case had been referred to Branch Four of the Office for Implementation of Sentences in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, for his death sentence to be carried out. Prison officials subsequently told Ramin Hossein Panahi on 19 May that his execution would be carried out after 15 June, when the Muslim month of Ramadan ends.
Amnesty International Middle East advocacy director Philip Luther said Mr Hossein-Panahi’s case had been a “breathtaking miscarriage of justice from start to finish.”
Mr Luther claimed there were reports of torture marks on the detainee’s body, and that his conviction was because of his membership of the armed Kurdish anti-establishment group Komala.
