Security forces have arrested civilians Peyman Khounbareh and Omid Cheraghi, two former Kurdish opposition members who had returned to their hometowns of Kamyaran, Kurdistan Province, and Sarpol-e Zahab, Kermanshah Province, under an amnesty agreement.
Khounbareh, a civilian from Kamyaran who had returned to his hometown with a letter of safe conduct after a period as a member of a Kurdish opposition party, was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in the city in recent days and taken to an undisclosed location.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that since his return, Khounbareh has been repeatedly summoned and interrogated by the Ministry of Intelligence in Kamyaran.
He was finally arrested and taken to an undisclosed location after being summoned again by the Ministry on 31 July.
Similarly, the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested Cheraghi, a former member of a Kurdish opposition party who comes from Sarpol-e Zahab, Kermanshah Province, despite the fact that he had resigned from the party and received a letter of safe conduct from the Iranian Consulate in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and returned to his city in March 2024.
In March, the prosecutor of Sarpol-e Zahab announced in an interview with state media the arrest of a member of the Kurdish opposition parties in the city.
Without mentioning Cheraghi’s coordination with the Iranian consulate in Sulaimaniyah and his amnesty, the IRGC intelligence in Sarpol-e Zahab reportedly claimed that he had been arrested while on a party mission.
Cheraghi was later transferred to Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah after being held for some time in a security detention facility.
Safe conduct is a document whereby individuals who have been members of opposition parties against the Islamic Republic of Iran are allowed to return to the country and resume their personal lives, provided they express remorse and receive approval from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although the issuance of the “safe conduct” is based on the government’s commitment not to harm, prosecute, or punish its recipients, there have been numerous cases where individuals, after receiving the document and returning to the country, have faced threats, pressure, harassment, arrest, and punishment by the military, security, and judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and some have even been executed.
In a similar case, in June 2022, Iran executed Firouz Musalou, a former member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who had been arrested and sentenced to death after returning to Iran in coordination with the security services.
