Zeynab Jalalian denied family contact and treatment

Zeynab Jalalian, a Kurdish political prisoner who has been imprisoned in Iran for 17 years, has been denied treatment and family contact in Yazd prison.

News Center- An aggravated isolation has been imposed on Kurdish political prisoner Zeynab Jalalian, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and has been imprisoned in Iran for 17 years, in Yazd prison.

Zeynab Jalalian was transferred to Yazd prison four years ago and she has been denied family contact upon the instructions of Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. She has been allowed to see her family once since she was transferred to Yazd prison. 

Last week, Zeynab Jalalian requested to see her family; however, she was informed that family visits were prohibited upon the instructions of the ministry, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). Her family went to Yazd from Maku to see her; however, they returned without seeing her.

She suffers from health problems

Zeynab Jalalian has been denied medical treatment although she suffers from several health problems, including oral thrush, pterygium (eye condition), asthma, and kidney and gastrointestinal problems. On September 25, she was transferred to Farrokhi hospital in Yazd when her health deteriorated. Despite all her objections, she was handcuffed and forced to undergo a tomography scan by prison authorities.

In March 2008, Zeynab Jalalian was arrested in the city of Kermanshah and transferred to the detention center of the Intelligence Ministry in Kermanshah, where she spent more than three months in solitary confinement. In the detention center, she was subjected to severe torture and even threatened with rape, while being denied contact with her family and access to a lawyer.

In December 2008, she was sentenced to death by the Court of First Instance. In November 2009, her death sentence was confirmed by the Iranian Supreme Court. In December 2011, her death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.