One month after the arrest of Safa Aeli, the uncle of Jina Mahsa Amini, his family remains in the dark about his current status.
Aeli’s family have made several visits to courts and security authorities in Saqqez and Sanandaj in Kurdistan province over the past month, but have yet to receive a clear answer about his situation or the charges against him.
Since his arrest, Aeli has been denied his right to legal representation and phone calls or visits with his family.
Security forces arrested Aeli without a warrant on the eve of the anniversary of government’s killing of Jina Mahsa Amini, as he was returning home in Saqqez on 5 September.
Security forces also conducted a raid on his home, confiscating some personal belongings and identification documents.
Ahead of the anniversary of Jina Mahsa Amini’s killing, in recent months the security services have summoned and arrested family members of civilians killed during the Woman Life Freedom Uprising across Iran to prevent them from holding commemorative events.
Some of the Kurdish family members who have been summoned, threatened, or arrested in this period in Quchan, Piranshahr, Karaj, Saqqez, and Mahabad are: Amjad Amini and Safa Aeli, the father and the uncle of Jina Mahsa Amini; Reza Babrnezhad, the brother of Mehdi Babrnezhad; Hassan Daroftadeh and Mardin Daroftadeh, the father and brother of Komar Daroftadeh; Mashallah Karami, the father of Mohammad Mehdi Karami; Sharmin Habibi, the wife of Fereydoun Mahmoudi; Abdollah Aboubakri, the father of Zanyar Aboubakri; Shahrouz Hosseinpouri, the brother of Azad Hosseinpouri; Ahmad Hassanzadeh and Solmaz Hassanzadeh, the father and the sister of Mohammad Hassanzadeh; Rezan Saedi and Moayyad Saedi, the aunt and the brother of Sarina Saedi; Omid Niyazi, the brother of Mohsen Niyazi; Khosrow Fathi, the son of Habibollah Fathi; and the family of Erfan Khazaei.