A Kurdish civilian named Rahman Ahmadian has lost his life in the detention centre of the Intelligence and Public Security Police (PAVA) in Orumiyeh.

Ahmadian, who comes from the Sir Heydarlu village of Orumiyeh, was arrested on 12 July along with five other residents of the village.

A relative of Ahmadian told the KHRN that security police contacted his family on 18 July and said he had committed suicide.

The 37-year-old shepherd did not have any contact with his family during his detention.

The family went to the forensic medicine department in Orumiyeh to receive the body. It was handed over to the family for burial only after they agreed not to talk about it to the media, said the relative.

They held the funeral in the presence of plainclothes forces in Sir Heydarlu village in Orumiyeh.

“The family did not accept the reason given by the security police and the initial forensic certificate and requested an autopsy,” the source said. “Forensic medicine department has postponed the announcement of the final autopsy opinion for another two months. Ahmadian’s family has also filed a complaint against the security police and handed it over to the judicial authorities in Orumiyeh.”

The shepherd’s family believe there is the possibility that the security police killed their son under torture.

In recent years, other cases of civilian deaths in the detention centres of security and law enforcement agencies were reported.

In January 2008, Kurdish student Ebrahim Lotfollahi was also said to have committed suicide under detention in the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj eight days after being arrested. Although the family never accepted the reason given by the ministry for the student’s death, the lawyer’s legal action has so far been inconclusive.

Also, in one of the last cases, in February 2021, the Criminal Investigation Department in Tehran announced the cause of death of Mehrdad Taleshi, a young Kurdish man from Divandarreh, as a heart attack. The young man died a day after his arrest in the detention centre of the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran’ Shapour neighbourhood. According to his family, the cause of the death of their son was torture, as the signs of torture were evident on his body.

In an interview with reporters on Monday, 19 July, the Chief Justice of Orumiyeh announced the arrest of six members of a “criminal gang”. One of the people he mentioned was Rahman Ahmadian, without any mention of the death of this Kurdish civilian in the detention centre of the security police.

Ahmadian’s relatives also deny the allegations against him for harassing people and say that he only worked as a shepherd.