Amnesty International: Iran must clarify the situation of hundreds of detainees in Khuzestan
Amnesty International has called on the Islamic Republic's authorities to clarify the status of hundreds of citizens of Khuzestan Province who have been arrested in the past two months.
Amnesty International wrote in a statement issued on Tuesday, November 13, that some "Ahwazi Arab activists" outside Iran have informed the organization that 22 people have been executed in Iran in recent days.
The organization has called on Iranian authorities to announce the location of the arrests of those arrested and to allow them access to lawyers and meetings with their families.
In recent days, human rights organizations and activists have reported the execution of 22 people arrested after the terrorist attack in Ahvaz. According to them, these executions were carried out without informing their families, and the bodies of the executed have not been returned to their families.
The Islamic Republic's officials denied this news and announced that no one had been executed, but Amnesty International wrote in its statement that Ahmad Heydari was among those arrested after the Ahvaz attack, and that the Intelligence Department, after summoning his family, informed them that he had been executed on November 8. According to Amnesty International, "Ministry of Intelligence officials have also told Mr. Heydari's family that no body will be handed over to them and that the family has no right to hold a mourning ceremony."
Previously, Gholamreza Shariati, the governor of Khuzestan, and Abbas Hosseinipoya, the prosecutor of Ahvaz, had said that none of the arrested individuals had been executed. According to them, the cases of these individuals are still under investigation and no verdict has been issued by the court.
On September 21, gunmen attacked an armed forces parade in the city of Ahvaz, killing 25 people and wounding dozens. Civilians and children were among the dead.
The Al-Ahwaziyya group initially claimed responsibility for the attack, but a little later, the Islamic State (ISIS) group released a video stating that the attackers were members of this group.
The Ministry of Intelligence announced on October 22 that it had arrested 22 people involved in the attack in a compound. According to the ministry's statement, "explosives, military equipment, and communication facilities" were discovered in the compound.
According to reports from human rights organizations, a number of civil, cultural, and political activists have been arrested in Khuzestan since the attack in the city of Ahvaz. Amnesty International, in a statement released on Friday, November 1, reported that in recent weeks, “more than 600 people have been arrested in Khuzestan and the details of nearly 180 of those arrested” have been provided to the organization.
Source: Voice of America
