Amirhossein Haghjouyan, the cousin of the executed Kurdish Yarsan civilian Reza Rasaei, was released on bail from Kermanshah Central Prison on 5 October after spending 12 days in detention.
Haghjouyan, who faces charges of “insulting religious sanctities”, was arrested by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Sahneh, Kermanshah Province, on 23 September.
The civilian was transferred from an IRGC intelligence detention facility to Kermanshah Central Prison last Thursday.
On 23 September, IRGC armed intelligence forces arrested Haghjouyan after raiding his family’s nursery on the outskirts of Sahneh.
He 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.