Soada Khadirzadeh was threatened with murder by the plaintiff in her case when attending her first trial. Soada’s lawyer has withdrawn from representing this political prisoner, who is imprisoned in Urmia Prison.
Soada Khadirzadeh’s trial was held online on August 24, 2022, at Branch 3 of Mahabad’s Criminal Court. Soada, her lawyer, and the plaintiffs were in attendance.
An informed source said the charge brought against Soada Khadirzadeh was taking part in murder as the main accomplice and membership in a Kurdish party. Ms. Khadirzadeh categorically denied killing a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Javad Banaei is the head of Branch 3, but a man named Gholam Karimkhani is investigating Soada’s case.
Morad Pirotinia, one of the plaintiffs in the case, is the son of Khezr Pirotinia, who was an IRGC member. Morad has threatened to kill Ms. Khadirzadeh if she is released from prison. Khezr Pirotinia was murdered by an unknown person on October 5, 2021.
The source also added that after being threatened by the plaintiffs, Soada’s lawyer informed her family that he will no longer represent the imprisoned mother.
The state-run Mizan News Agency, associated with the Judiciary, announced Soada’s provided release a few days ago. Officials of the Prosecutor’s Office in Mahabad had agreed to accept Soada’s release on bail after the first trial session.
The 3-billion-Toman bail for Soada’s temporary release has long been prepared for admission by the court. At various stages, however, they disagreed on her short-term release, and kept raising the amount each time until it reached 3 billion Tomans.
Women’s rights activists call for immediate release of Soada and her new-born Solina
Dozens of women’s rights activists released a statement regarding Soada Khadirzadeh’s dire situation as she languishes in Urmia Prison’s women’s ward. The women’s rights activists demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the Kurdish political prisoner and her newborn daughter, Solina.
At dawn on Thursday, August 25, 2022, the Kurdish political prisoner was abruptly taken from her ward to an unknown location. This occurred after Soada had been threatened by the plaintiffs during trial.
Soada was transferred while her 2-month-old daughter has been left with a number of prisoners in Urmia’s women’s ward.
Who is Soada Khadirzadeh?
Political prisoner Soada Khadirzadeh, 32, from Piranshahr, was married with two children. She was one month pregnant at the time of her arrest. Security forces arrested her on October 14, 2021. The reasons for her arrest and charges against her are not known. On November 8, 2021, she was transferred from the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Detention Center to the Central Prison of Urmia. During her detention, she was denied visitation with her family and access to an attorney.
She was on hunger strike from April 26 to May 7 to protest the ambiguous condition she was left in for seven months in Urmia Prison. She ended her hunger strike after 11 days when she was promised a transfer to a medical facility by the prison authorities or that she would be released on bail. On the eighth day of her strike, she fainted in the central hall of Urmia Prison due to starvation.
She then published an audio file revealing that she was being held as a hostage in prison and that the prison authorities had threatened her to obtain a forced confession.
In early June, one medical practitioner said that Soada should be transferred to the hospital immediately. The prison authorities did not allow her transfer and the pregnant prisoner remained deprived of medical care throughout June.
Political prisoner Soada Khadirzadeh is in a critical physical condition and suffers from a lumbar disc. She also has a heart problem