At Least 32 Kurdish Citizens and Activists Arrested in June
At least 32 Kurdish citizens and activists were arrested by security forces in June of this year in cities across western Iran.
According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, at least 32 Kurdish citizens were arrested in June in the cities of Kamyaran, Sanandaj, Marivan, Saghez, Takab, Shahin Dez, Ashnueh, Mahabad and Maku, and most of them have been transferred to security detention centers in Saghez, Sanandaj and Urmia, where they are being interrogated.
According to relatives of some of the detainees, their efforts to obtain information about the status of the arrested individuals have been fruitless so far, and during this time the detainees have been unable to make telephone contact or visits with their families.
A recently released Kurdish citizen told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network: Following recent clashes between the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps forces and members of one of the Kurdish opposition parties in the Chaldiran area, many citizens of that region were arrested and are currently being interrogated at the Mahdi detention center of the Revolutionary Guards in Urmia.
Based on available information, the arrested individuals have been charged with “cooperation with one of the Kurdish parties opposing the Iranian government.”
On June 22 and 24, five Kurdish citizens named “Ramadan Saltanian,” “Jalal Sourman,” “Rahim Ahmadpour,” “Amir Tapora” and “Bahman Khosravi” were arrested by security forces in the cities of Urmia, Shahin Dez, Takab and Sanandaj.
On the other hand, eight Kurdish citizens named “Ali Esmaili,” “Sohrab Qaderzadeh,” “Salim Sheikhnejad,” “Hymen Esmaili,” “Omid Qadri,” “Khaled Kavolani,” “Asaad Hasanpour” and “Younes Hasanpour” were arrested on June 17 and 20 in their residential cities.
Amnesty International last November called 2018 a “year of shame” for the Islamic Republic and announced that in that year more than seven thousand people, including protest participants, students, journalists, women’s rights activists, environmental activists, labor activists and ethnic rights activists and religious minorities, were arrested in Iran.
Source: Voice of America
