Arrest of Kurdish civil activists; lack of information continues

"With the invasion of about twenty to thirty plainclothes forces and with the cooperation of the security guards of Kharazmi University in Karaj, my brother was arrested without explanation or legal reason and without a judicial warrant, along with mistreatment and acts of violence, along with Sohaib Badrouj, another student of this university."

This is part of the narrative of Farouk Samani, Farzad Samani's brother, from the moment this Kurdish civil activist from Mahabad was arrested on January 10.

Farzad Samani is a senior sociology student at Kharazmi University in Karaj. He was previously arrested in early March 2012 along with a group of other civil society activists for their cultural activities in the field of mother tongue education and transferred to Mahabad Central Prison.

Farzad Samani, who has been active in cultural and environmental fields in Mahabad for years, is one of dozens of Kurdish civil society activists who has not only been deprived of access to a lawyer during this period, but also has not yet been officially charged or the reason for his and other recent detainees' arrest, and has been placed in a state of "enforced disappearance."

A new wave of arrests of Kurdish citizens and civil and environmental activists by the IRGC Intelligence Organization and the Ministry of Intelligence has begun and continues since January 10. These arrests, which include civil society activists, labor rights activists, environmental defenders, writers, students, former political prisoners, as well as ordinary citizens, have taken place in at least 19 cities and 5 provinces in Iran.

According to human rights organizations, during these arrests, which were mostly mass, more than one hundred people have been arrested and transferred to security institutions' detention centers in Urmia, Sanandaj, and Marivan.

Then, on February 5, 37 human rights organizations and civil society organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, signed a joint statement calling on international organizations to urgently hold the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran accountable for the "arbitrary" repression and detention of more than one hundred Kurdish citizens and civil society activists.

In this statement, human rights organizations called for the release of detainees who are in a situation of "enforced disappearance."

The organizations signing the statement also expressed concern that, referring to the arrest of more than 500 people from the Kurdish minority for political reasons in 2020, 159 of whom were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one month to 17 years, and four were sentenced to death, "detainees are at risk of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment to extract forced confessions; confessions that may later be relied upon by courts in unfair trials for trumped-up crimes related to national security."

Of the recent detainees, more than 50 are currently in a state of "enforced disappearance," and authorities are refusing to provide their families with any information about their fate or whereabouts.

In recent years, in the Kurdish provinces, due to the significant growth and increase in peaceful activities of campaigns and civil society organizations, as well as recruitment among young and educated men and women, there has been an increase in frequent summonses, arrests, issuance of heavy sentences, and increased security pressure on civil activists.

Civil activists and non-governmental organizations, through informal circles, with coherent and comprehensive organization and planning that work towards providing assistance, empowering civil society, and meeting the economic and social needs of the vulnerable segments of society, always enjoy a special status and popularity among the people.

Wave of arrests of Kurdish citizens and civil activists

On January 12, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network published a report on the beginning of a new wave of repression and widespread arrests of Kurdish citizens and civil and environmental activists in various cities in Iran, writing that security forces have arrested these individuals "without providing a judicial warrant and by resorting to verbal and physical violence, arbitrarily and illegally."

During the arrests, plainclothes forces searched the residences and workplaces of many of these individuals and seized personal belongings such as cell phones, books, academic notebooks, laptops, etc.

The arrest of Farzad Salmani and Sohaib Badrouj, two Kurdish students at Kharazmi University in Karaj, coincided with the beginning of the recent wave of arrests in cities in Kurdish-populated areas, showing that the security apparatus had already planned such an action.

Mr. Samani and Badrouj were among the first detainees to be arrested on the morning of January 10th at the dormitory of Kharazmi University in Karaj by security forces (in plain clothes) and two days later were transferred to the centers of security institutions under the supervision of the Revolutionary Guard in Urmia and Sanandaj.

Farouk Samani, an artist and former political prisoner, says about his brother's situation: "Two days after his arrest, my brother Farzad made a short phone call to his family, lasting only a few seconds, in Persian, informing them of his transfer to Urmia and his detention in Haft Tir detention center located in the city's (Al-Mahdi camp). This has been my brother's last contact with his family since then."

This is in a situation where on January 14, a number of families of the detainees went to the IRGC's intelligence (Al-Mahdi headquarters) in Urmia to obtain information about the status of their children, but they did not receive a clear answer and were told: "We have no information and these names are not here."

Officers from the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence insulted and threatened these families when they tried to obtain information about the status of the detainees, and warned them not to give interviews to the media or human rights organizations.

Based on his personal experience during his detention, Farouk Samani says that the intelligence agencies in Kurdistan show no signs of humane and lawful treatment of detainees, adding: "Currently, being in such a situation is very worrying for us families who have no information about the fate of our loved ones. We do not know who is holding our loved ones and in which security detention center they are being held."

According to Farouk Samani, who is in contact with a number of other family members of the detainees, despite the families' continuous efforts, no organization from the judicial and security authorities has officially assumed responsibility for the detainees to this point.

He adds: "Earlier, we asked for help from the representative of the people of Mahabad, Mr. Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, and as our representative in the parliament, he was obliged to take action to determine the status and whereabouts of my brother and other detainees, but unfortunately, after one or two phone calls, he did not even answer our calls and completely withdrew himself and did not provide the slightest intervention or assistance based on his duties."

To date, none of the officials and representatives of the provinces in Kurdish-populated areas have reacted to the recent arrests of Kurdish citizens and civil activists.

Also, in recent days, Twitter users protested for the second time in a short period of time against the new wave of repression and arrests of civil activists in Kurdistan, and the hashtags used in the Twitter storm also became the top trend on Twitter in Iran.

In such circumstances, with the continued lack of information about the health status of these individuals and the failure to disclose the reasons for their detention, the families have endured great emotional and psychological stress.

Aziz Adwaei, a former political prisoner and brother of Mohammad (Ekram) Adwaei, says about how his brother was arrested: "Plain-clothed forces entered my brother's house at four in the morning on January 13, and while my brother was sleeping, they beat him in front of his wife, handcuffed him, and took him away."

He says that during this period, his brother has only had one one-minute phone call with his family, and the family's efforts to contact the court and Marivan's information have remained fruitless, and virtually no institution is accountable.

Mr. Advaei adds: “My brother Akram was arrested for one day in 2008 and again in 2017 for a month and a half in the custody of the Marivan Central Intelligence Agency. His charge was “collaborating with Kurdish opposition parties,” but he was ultimately acquitted in this case.”

According to Aziz Advaei, security officers have visited his home seven times in the past few years to arrest him and his other brothers, and currently another of his brothers, Aram Advaei, is awaiting an appeal against his six-month prison sentence.

In this regard, on February 15, a group of civil activists in Marivan issued a statement strongly criticizing the recent arrests of Kurdish civil activists.

The statement called on government and governing institutions to release the detained activists and provide peace for families and society.

Part of this statement states: "It is clear that civil society organizations and activists play an important role in developing and advancing democracy and rationalizing the context of people's actions. Also, their activities, far from violence and playing a role in various social, cultural, and environmental fields, have always been promising for vitality and responsibility towards the collective and public interests of society."

According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, 29 of the arrested activists have been released on bail during this period.

Also, during this period, 10 detained activists named Azimeh Naseri, Hossein Gardezi, Soran Hosseinzadeh, Sirvan Nouri, Iman Abdi, Afshin Mam-Ahmadi, Farhad Musapour, Fereydoun Musapour, Bahman Yousefzadeh, and Shapool Khezri have been transferred from the IRGC Intelligence Organization detention center to Urmia Central Prison.

The families of these arrested activists announced that they were charged with "membership in a Kurdish opposition party" and that the Urmia court had opposed their release on bail.

Source: Radio Farda