Warisha Moradi, a Kurdish political prisoner in Tehran’s Evin Prison, has been prevented from contacting her family and lawyers since 6 May on the orders of Judge Abolghasem Salavati, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported.

When her lawyers went to court last week ahead of her second hearing, they were told by Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran that they would not be allowed to access the case file or even return to the court for the same purpose, according to the KHRN report.

The first hearing, on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), was held on 16 June at Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran. Moradi was not allowed to defend herself during the hearing, and Judge Abolghasem Salavati also barred her lawyers from presenting a defence.

The second hearing, originally scheduled for 13 May, was cancelled for undisclosed reasons, and on 14 May Judge Salavati ordered Moradi’s transfer to solitary confinement in Ward 209 for further interrogation.

The prisoner spent three days in solitary confinement and, together with Pakhshan Azizi, another Kurdish prisoner, began a two-day hunger strike in protest.

Moradi, a member of the East Kurdistan Free Women Society (KJAR) from Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence on 1 August 2023 at the entrance to Sanandaj upon her return from Kermanshah, Kermanshah Province, where she had been involved in political and organisational activities.

She spent the first 13 days of her detention in the detention centre of this security institution in Sanandaj, and afterwards, was transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran.

During this period, she was subjected to pressure and threats to make forced confessions, and on 26 December 2023, after five months of solitary confinement, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin Prison.