Chaleshi, a 50-year-old man from Orumiyeh, was arrested by security forces on 2 December 2020. He was recently released from prison and died from complications of untreated colon cancer after years of inadequate medical care.
Anvar Chaleshi, a Kurdish political prisoner from Orumiyeh, who was recently released from the city’s central prison, died on February 19 in hospital from complications of untreated colon cancer after years of inadequate medical care in prison, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported.
A former cellmate, speaking to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, said Chaleshi’s condition had deteriorated severely in recent years, and political prisoners had repeatedly protested his lack of access to treatment.
“Over the past two years, Anvar suffered from extreme weight loss and frequent blackouts due to his worsening condition. Every time he was taken to hospital under pressure from fellow prisoners, he was not treated and sent back to prison without completing his treatment due to opposition from the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC Intelligence Organisation and on the pretext of unpaid medical expenses,” the prisoner said.
According to the source, the forensic medicine department determined last year that Chaleshi was physically unfit to continue his imprisonment due to his deteriorating health. However, the IRGC Intelligence Organisation opposed his release and he remained in prison. He was eventually pardoned and released, but by then it was too late for effective medical intervention.
In late May 2024, KHRN had raised concerns about Chaleshi’s condition, reporting that he had been transferred from the political and religious prisoners’ ward of Orumiyeh Central Prison to Khomeini Hospital due to his deteriorating health, but due to financial constraints he was unable to begin treatment and remained in the hospital under tight security, handcuffed and shackled.
Chaleshi, a 50-year-old man from Orumiyeh, was arrested by security forces on 2 December 2020, along with Kamel Jabbarvand, and taken to the detention facility of the Intelligence Organisation of the IRGC at Al-Mahdi base.
After initial interrogation, he was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison in the early months of 2021.
In October 2021, Chaleshi was sentenced to seven years in prison by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh on charges of “acting against national security” through membership of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
