Officials at the al-Mahdi base of Iran’s Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan province, have told the family of the detained member of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), Edris Feqhi, that they were unaware of his situation.
On 28 September, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) published a report saying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had detained Feqhi wounded.
The KHRN report followed news suggesting he had lost his life in a clash between the PJAK and IRGC forces in Bukan, West Azerbaijan province, on 24 July.
Later, in late September, the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that Feqhi was alive and held in detention.
Feqhi’s family recently travelled from Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, to the IRGC’s detention centre in the al-Mahdi base in Orumiyeh to inquire about his condition. After hours of delay, security officers said they did not have any information on his whereabouts.
A source close to the family told the KHRN: “Security officials have told the family that they should go to branch 6 of the Interrogation [Department] to find out about Edris Feqhi’s fate. After Mr Feqhi’s family went to the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Orumiyeh, the interrogator of branch 6 of the Interrogation Department, contrary to the previous statements of one of the officials of the Orumiyeh Court, expressed his ignorance on the fate of Edris Faghihi.”
The source continued: “Edris Feqhi’s mother also reacted to the lack of a clear response on her son’s condition and said that she would set herself on fire in front of the court to protest. But the case investigator indifferently responded that it would not be a problem and firefighters and ambulances would be on site after she attempts to burn herself.”
Court officials have asked Feqhi’s family to return to Sanandaj and said they would inform the family about their son’s situation in the days to follow.
Background
According to the findings of the KHRN, Feqhi managed to hide after a clash between members of the PJAK and forces of the IRGC.
Two days later, forces of the IRGC’s Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohada base arrested him wounded.
IRGC forces first transferred him to the security institution’s Arefian Hospital in Orumiyeh. They then took him to its detention centre.
He is currently being held in the public cell of the Haft-e Tir detention centre of the Intelligence Organisation of the IRGC in the al-Mahdi base in Orumiyeh. He is severely injured and is in urgent need of medical treatment.
At least two people who have spent time in this detention centre in recent months have seen him in the detention centre’s infirmary.
On 24 July, forces of the IRGC’s Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohada base ambushed a group of PJAK members in the mountainous heights of the Alamabad village in Bukan, and a fierce clash took place between the two groups for several minutes.
On 27 July, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported that two members of a Kurdish party had been killed and one wounded member had been arrested, quoting the Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohada base.
On 6 August, the PJAK also confirmed that two of its members, Edris Feqhi, from Sanandaj, and Mohsen Ghaderi, from Bukan, had been killed in an armed clash with the IRGC near Bukan.
But after a while, PJAK issued another statement announcing that Mohsen Ghaderi was alive and that Idris Faqihi had been arrested after being wounded by the Revolutionary Guards.
