Iranian prisoners in Iraqi prison go on hunger strike

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq 

Around 100 Iranian Kurdish prisoners have gone on hunger strike in Iraq’s northern Sulaymaniyah province, urging Iraqi authorities to send them back home.

The prisoners were incarcerated at the Gewran prison in Sulaymaniyah. They were arrested on charges of drug dealing and most of them said they would rather serve the remaining part of their sentence in Iran.

Said Wafa, 42, who was sentenced to 15 years for selling drugs, told AA that he had been imprisoned at the prison for eight years during which his family was unable to visit him because of the distance and financial woes.

Gewran prison warden Barzan Abdullah said that the Iraqi side also supported the demands of the prisoners and the Iranian authority too was in the loop about the issue.

“The return of the prisoners could not be taken forward because of the recent change of the Iranian government and the conflicts in Iraq,” Abdullah said.

Also, Musena Amin, a member of the Iraqi parliament from Kurdistan Islamic Union Party, said that his party had brought the prisoners’ demand to the notice of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.