Iranian Kurdish Political Prisoner in “Critical Condition” after Attempted Suicide

A Kurdish political prisoner jailed over his participation in Iran’s 2022 uprising attempted suicide in protest of his long-term prison sentence, according to a group that monitors rights violations in the country’s Kurdish regions.

The Norway-based group Hengaw quoted an informed source as saying on January 16 that Vahid Chavaran was hospitalized in critical condition in Ilam after he ingested pills behind the bars of the city’s central prison in an attempt to take his own life.

On January 8 of this year, the First Branch of Ilam Revolutionary Court sentenced Chavaran to 12 years in prison.

He was arrested in June 2023 as he attempted to leave Iran after spending months in hiding to avoid arrest.

In September, Chavaran resorted to sewing his lips shut to protest his dire conditions of detention.

While in custody, Chavaran’s jailers subjected him to torture to make him “confess.”