A week after his arrest, Kurdish cultural activist Servat Sohrabi remains in detention in Kermanshah, Kermanshah Province, without access to legal representation or family visits. Sohrabi, originally from Javanrud and a resident of Kermanshah, was arrested without a warrant by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence on a street in Kermanshah on 5 February. After his arrest, the intelligence agents took the activist to the ministry’s…
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Two Kurdish men, Ghader Kharamanfar and Jalal Sadafi, remain in prolonged detention without legal representation or family visits following their arrest by the Ministry of Intelligence in December. Both men are being held in solitary confinement at the Ministry’s detention facility in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Hajar Amiya, Kharamanfar’s wife, and Sirwan Shawleh, Sadafi’s wife, have been…
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Ministry of Intelligence agents have arrested five Kurdish civilians and activists in the cities of Sanandaj, Mahabad and Saqqez as part of the latest wave of arrests in Kurdish cities. According to information received by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), the individuals – Mohyeddin Khaledian, Vahab Khediripour, Rahman Rahimpour, Jalal Parhizkar and Sarvar Hama-Nazdar – were taken into custody by the Ministry of Intelligence…
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Security forces blocked the Sanandaj-Dehgolan road in Kurdistan Province and arrested Sunni Kurdish cleric Barzan Maleki and several of his students on 27 January as they were travelling to Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, to attend a religious gathering. Maleki, the prayer leader and teacher at the Sheikheyn Grand Mosque in Sanandaj, and his students were detained for several hours before being forced to return…
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Security forces have arrested at least 12 Kurdish civilians and activists over the past week in Mahabad, Sanandaj, Naqadeh, Piranshahr, Sardasht, Marivan, and Dehgolan. The arrests follow a general strike by businesses in Kurdish cities protesting the death sentences of Kurdish political prisoners. The strike, which took place on 22 January following a call by Kurdish political parties for a general strike to protest against…
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Security forces have arrested at least six more Kurdish civilians and activists in recent days, bringing the total number of detainees to 27 in the past week, most of them linked to the general strike in Kurdish cities against the death sentences of Kurdish political prisoners. Additionally, the Ministry of Intelligence has summoned and interrogated two activists in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province. The strike, which took place…
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Security forces arrested at least six shopkeepers in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, for taking part in a general strike to protest against the death sentences handed down to Kurdish political prisoners. The strike, which took place on 22 January following a call by Kurdish political parties for a general strike to protest against the death sentences of Pakhshan Azizi, Verisheh (Wirishe) Moradi and other political prisoners,…
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The Ministry of Intelligence has arrested six Kurdish civilians in Piranshahr and Sardasht in West Azerbaijan Province, transferring them to an undisclosed location in recent days. The detainees were identified as Jigar Mojahedi, Keyvan Asaseh, Farhad Pelleh, Rahim Alizadeh, Hassan Hassannezhad, and Mohammad Amin Hassannezhad. On 21 January, Ministry agents arrested Hassan Hassannezhad and his son Mohammad Amin Hassannezhad without a warrant in Rabat, Sardasht County. Following…
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Benyamin Rahimpour, a former political prisoner, was arrested by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, on 21 January and taken to Shahramfar Detention Centre, a facility controlled by this military-security body. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that IRGC intelligence agents raided Rahimpour’s shop and arrested him without a warrant. During the operation, the agents confiscated…
Read moreIn its monthly reports, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) highlights cases of human rights violations in Kurdistan and violations of the rights of Kurdish civilians in different regions and cities across Iran.
This report includes all cases recorded and reported by KHRN from across Iran through its own sources and verification mechanisms from 1 March to 31 March.
The restrictive environment for independent human rights organisations in Iran, coupled with the pressures faced by individuals subjected to human rights violations and their families, make it difficult to publish accurate and comprehensive reports.
It is therefore important to note that the statistics and information presented in this report do not cover all cases of human rights violations. This report is the result of examining news and reports published by the KHRN and fact-checking of reports published by other human rights organisations and news websites.
Executions
Iran executed a prisoner, Arshad Farzadband, on charges of “premeditated murder” in Orumiyeh Central Prison in March.
*Explanation: The KHRN, recognizing the fundamental right to life, publishes and records news and execution statistics without regard to the ethnic background of individuals and the location of the execution. All cases reported to the organisation by credible sources are published after thorough fact-checking.
Kolbars
In the second half of March, at least one man was killed by Iranian border forces and another died in a road accident while working as a kolbar in the border areas of Baneh and Salas-e Babajani.
Civilian killings
In March, a civilian, Mohammad Hosseinzadeh, was killed by Iranian police in Orumiyeh.
Deaths in prisons and detention facilities
During this period, Kamran Kazemi, a 38-year-old Kurdish man from Kermanshah, died in suspicious circumstances in the Criminal Investigation Department detention centre in Orumiyeh.
While police officials have attributed his death to suicide, fellow detainees claim that he was tortured to death by officers.
Detentions and arrests
In March, Iranian forces arrested at least 59 people, at least two of whom were sent to prison to serve their sentences.
Sentences
During this period, Iranian courts sentenced at least two political prisoners, Hatem Ozdemir and Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou, to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “armed insurrection” (baghi), respectively.