Ramazan Ahmad Kamal, a 33-year-old Syrian Kurd, is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Raja’i Shahr Prison in Karaj near Tehran, for “membership of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)”. He is in need of surgical treatment for an infection in his shoulder, which has resulted in partial paralysis of his arm. The infection appears to be the outcome of poor post-operative care following earlier surgical treatment inside prison. Ramazan Ahmad Kamal has said that he lost consciousness and fell into a coma after prison officials beat him while transferring him to hospital on 30 December. The first hospital he was taken to refused to admit him, despite his critical condition and previous arrangements made for his admission. He was then transferred to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini hospital, where he was apparently kept in the emergency department for around 48 hours before being admitted to a ward. Ramazan Ahmad Kamal was taken back to prison two weeks later, on 14 January, without receiving the treatment he needed. The transfer back to prison took place even though prison doctors and the Legal Medical Organization had apparently advised hospital treatment and Tehran’s Prosecutor had issued permission for his transfer to a hospital. He was cuffed to his bed during his entire stay in the hospital.
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