Security forces arrested Kurdish civilian Soleyman Choupani during a raid on his home in the village of Gerd Kashaneh in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province, on 5 September.

The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that the Ministry of Intelligence raided Choupani’s home and arrested him without a warrant.

Choupani’s current whereabouts and the charges against him remain unknown.

The arrest comes at a time of heightened security ahead of the second anniversary of the anti-government Women, Life, Freedom uprising, a movement sparked by the death of Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022.

Since 3 September, at least nine Kurdish civilians have been detained by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organisation in the cities of Mahabad, Oshnavieh and Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province, and taken to security detention centres in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.