The Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) today arrested Amirhossein Haghjouyan, the cousin of the executed Kurdish Yarsan civilian Reza Rasaei, in Sahneh, Kermanshah Province.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that armed IRGC intelligence agents raided Haghjouyan’s family plant nursery on the outskirts of Sahneh at 07:30 local time and took him to an undisclosed location.
There is no information about Haghjouyan’s current whereabouts.
Haghjouyan had been vocal about the arrest and subsequent execution of his cousin Rasaei.
Following an unfair trial, Rasaei, 35, was secretly executed on 6 August 2024 after being convicted of “involvement in the killing” of a security official during the anti-government Women, Life, Freedom uprising.
He was executed in Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah, Kermanshah Province, without prior notification to his family or lawyer, and was denied a final meeting with his family.
The security forces refused to release his body to the family for burial in his home town and instead buried him by force in Minaabad cemetery in Kermanshah, with only a few family members allowed to attend.
The Kurdish civilian had been subjected to severe torture during his detention in order to extract a confession for his alleged role in the killing of the official during an anniversary remembrance for Seyed Khalil Alinezhad, a distinguished artist and Yarsani community leader.
The ceremony evolved into an anti-government protest, influenced by the nationwide demonstrations triggered by the government’s killing of Jina Mahsa Amini.
