Turkish authorities today moved at least 20 Iranian and Afghan asylum seekers from a refugee camp in Edirne, north-west Turkey, to an undisclosed location for deportation. Shahla Chorkeh, the wife of Amir Kahrizi, one of the asylum seekers, shared her concerns with the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said: “Today, my husband informed me through a short phone call that at least 20 Iranian…
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Turkish police have detained on 7 April a former Kurdish woman political prisoner, who holds Iranian citizenship, in Kayseri, central Turkey, and have transferred her to the city’s centre for the deportation of asylum seekers. Fatemeh Davand left Iran in January 2022 and has been living in Turkey as a political asylum-seeker ever since. “I was detained by the police for no reason in a shopping…
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Denmark forcibly deported a Kurdish woman, who holds Iranian citizenship, and her two children, on 29 March after their application for political asylum was rejected by the Danish government. Ghadamkheir Haghanizadeh was violently separated from her husband and her one-year-old child after six years in Denmark and was taken to Copenhagen Airport with her two other children. Haghanizadeh and her two 10-year-old children were first flown…
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A former Kurdish political prisoner named Kamran Darvishi has gone on a hunger strike and sewn up his lips in Austria on 23 March Darvishi, who left Iran 11 months ago to seek asylum in Austria, protests against the uncertainty about his asylum case and the local authorities’ decision to evacuate him from the building where he lives. He had previously gone on a hunger strike…
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A Kurdish asylum-seeking couple from Marivan, Iran’s northwestern Kurdistan province, lost their lives after drowning in a river in Greece on 13 January. Somayyeh Jamkhaneh, 28, and her husband Jalil Ravangard, 34, were hoping to reach Europe and seek asylum. Jamkhaneh’s brother, Abdollah Jamkhaneh, 15, was also travelling with the couple. He survived after the incident but was arrested by the Greek police in a poor…
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The body of an Iranian Kurdish political activist named Ahmad Bigham has been found dead at his house in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, on 1 January. Bigham’s relatives consider his death “suspicious” due to the signs of torture on his body. Erbil police have not yet made an official statement on the matter. The autopsy results will be announced in the next 20 days. In an…
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Families of Iranian Kurdish asylum seekers, who were deported to Syria by Turkey, gathered in front of the Turkish embassy in Tehran for the second day in a row on 15 December, demanding the release of their family members. The Turkish police had detained Kurdish asylum seekers Damavand Pakseresht, Mobin Valadbeigi, Afshar Rostami, Bahman Shadravan, Massoud Heidari, Saeed Ahmadi, Fardin Darvishpour, Hedayat Rokhzadi and Samran…
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A Kurdish refugee named Bakhtiyar Musazadeh has lost his life due to illness on 22 November after arriving in Germany. Reportedly, the young man fell ill while passing through Belarus in the cold weather. The 25-year-old asylum seeker’s family, who come from Salas-e Babajani in Kermanshah province, western Iran, had settled in the Al-Tash camp in Ramadi, central Iraq, in 1979. In 2005, after the fall of…
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Kurdish refugee Anwar Nillufary is on his third hunger strike since 2017 in front of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Athens, Greece, demanding his resettlement in another country. Nillufary had gone on hunger strike on two occasions in 2017 and 2020. The first one lasted 64 days while the other was 73-day-long. On 14 September 2021, the Kurdish refugee went on his third strike. His…
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The Kurdistan Human Rights Network’s (KHRN) recent investigations have revealed numerous cases of human rights violations against Kurdish civilians and activists from Iran in August 2023.
Our Documentation and Statistics Centre has compiled a comprehensive report on the various violations perpetrated against these individuals, which we present in this monthly report.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network’s (KHRN) recent investigations have revealed numerous cases of human rights violations against Kurdish civilians and activists from Iran in August 2023.
Our Documentation and Statistics Centre has compiled a comprehensive report on the various violations perpetrated against these individuals, which we present in this monthly report.
Executions
According to these findings, Iran executed at least 13 prisoners over the past month in Sanandaj, Saqqez, Khorramabad, Karaj, Hamadan, and Dezful.
While three prisoners were executed on charges of “premeditated murder”, 10 were executed for drug-related offences.
These are the executions of which the KHRN has been informed by its sources. However, the number of those executed is likely to be higher.
Kolbars and tradesmen
In August, at least four kolbars were killed and 16 were injured in the country’s western border areas.
Of these, 18 were shot by Iranian border guards and one was killed after he was hit by a military vehicle of the border forces.
In addition, one kolbar was injured after being shot by Iraqi border forces in the Choman border of Baneh on 7 August.
Killings of civilians
On 17 August, a Kurdish soldier from Maku, West Azerbaijan Province, was shot dead at a military base in Qasr-e Shirin, Kermanshah Province.
Work accidents
Over the past month, at least six workers lost their lives in work accidents in Qasr-e Shirin, Tabriz, Saqqez, Maku, Javanrud and Ilam.
Detentions and arrests
Throughout August, Iranian forces arrested at least 60 civilians, including activists, journalists, Kurdish Sunni clerics and two children.
Two of these civilians were detained to serve prison sentences in Ilam and Naqadeh.
Prison sentences
Over the past month, Iranian courts sentenced at least 10 people to prison terms ranging from six months to a total of 16 and a half years.
Half of these sentences were handed down by Branch 101 of the Criminal Court of Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province.