Kurdistan Human Rights Network

A 30-year-old worker from ‌Bukan named Rezgar Hajizadeh died in an explosion at an oil refinery in the city of Duhok in the Kurdistan Region yesterday, a reliable source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). According to unofficial statistics, thousands of Kurdish civilians from different cities of Iranian Kurdistan are employed by the industrial, construction, agricultural and climatic sectors of Kurdistan Region.

Labour activist Bakhtiar Rahimi has been sentenced by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Marivan to two years in prison on charges of “acting against national security” during the past few days. The activist was arrested on December 27 at his workplace in the Marivan Electricity Department but he was released from Sanandaj prison on December 21 on a bail of 100 million Tomans. Amnesty International…

Haydar Ghorbani, a Kurdish labour activist and a member of the Free Trade Union of Iran who was detained by security forces at his family home in Tehran on June 7, 2020, is still being detained at Ward 209 of Evin Prison. During this period, the activist has had only two short telephone calls with his family. Despite his family’s enquiries made to the court…

New charges may be brought against the two Kurdish labour activists Mahmoud Salehi and Osman Ismaili following an indictment filed by the Saqqez Intelligence Office, Kurdistan province.  “I was summoned to the Branch 5 of the Saqqez Prosecutor’s Office on May 4, by receiving a text message.  I referred to this branch after receiving the message. After studying the case, the judge told me that…

On the eve of International Workers’ Day, Sanandaj Intelligence Office and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) telephone summoned a number of Kurdish labour activists in addition to threatening them not to attend any non-governmental event on this day.  “For several days now, as in previous years, security agencies have made threatening calls to at least 10 labour activists.” A labour activist in Sanandaj told…

Hadi Tanumand, a labour activist and a member of the Coordination Committee for the Creation of Labours’ Union, was sent to Bukan prison to serve his three-and-a-half-year imprisonment sentence. Tanoumand was arrested in June 2013 during the annual general meeting of the Coordination Committee to help establish labour unions in Karaj along with four other members of the committee. He was transferred to…

A Kurdish worker Isaac Rouhi has been sent to prison for serving his one-year imprisonment sentence, a source told the Kurdish Human Rights Network (KHRN). Isaac Rouhi had previously been sentenced to one year in prison by Branch 4 of the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj on charges of “participation in World Labor Day”. The verdict was served on this labour activist following when…

Kurdish Labour activist Seyed Khaled Hosseini was released from Sanandaj Central Prison on a bail of 100 million tomans on 19 December. The Iranian security forces detained Hosseini, a member of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organization, in Sanandaj on 25 November.  The activist has been arrested and prosecuted several times over the past several years for allegedly participating in a protest rally in condemnation of the…

Labour activist Jalil Mohammadi, a member of the Coordination Committee for the Establishment of Workers’ Organizations, was arrested by security forces on 3 December, local sources told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). Mohammadi was arrested at his workplace in Sanandaj and taken to an unknown location.  No information has been released concerning the whereabouts of the activist. Mohammadi has also been summoned and detained many times over the past few years…