Security forces arrested at least 38 Kurdish civilians and activists in the second half of December, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.

On 15 December, the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) simultaneously arrested Kurdish civilians Hemin Palani, Pouya Deljou, Aryam Ahmadi, Payam Ranjbar, Kaveh Sohrabi, Ayman Safaei, Omid Salehi, Yousef Ranjbar and Khaled Kamari without warrants at their family homes and at a restaurant in Sarpol-e Zahab, Kermanshah Province.

After their arrest, these individuals were taken to the Nabi Akram detention facility of the military-security institution, located in the Meydan-e Naft (Naft Square) area of Kermanshah.

Additionally, Mohammad Neyrizi was arrested by the same forces a few days later in the village of Saraw-e Garm in Sarpol-e Zahab and taken to the same IRGC intelligence detention centre in Kermanshah. He was provisionally released on bail after being held for one week.

On 24 December, civilians Afshin Saedi, Kaveh Ostovar, Hemin Bahrami, and Soran Arshad were arrested by security forces in Bukan, West Azerbaijan Province.

On 25 December, Ebrahim Gol-Anbar, the brother of Esmail Gol-Anbar, who was killed during the anti-government Women, Life, Freedom uprising in Javanrud, Kermanshah Province, was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence near Bisotun, Kermanshah Province, while returning from Tehran and taken to the Meydan-e Naft detention facility in Kermanshah.

The next day, on 26 December, the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested Morad Abdollah-Omari, Noureddin Molla-Alizadeh, and Towfigh Amini, three civilians from the village of Haq in Oshnavieh, West Azerbaijan Province, along with Mohammad Behrouzi from Amirabad in Oshnavieh and took them to the military-security agency’s detention facility in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.

On the early hours of 27 December, Soran Mohammadpour from Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province, Musa Rasouli from the village of Khorenj, as well as Behzad Mahmoudi and Aram Mohammadi from the village of Pasveh, were arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence forces in Piranshahr and taken to the Ministry’s detention facility in Orumiyeh.

At 04:00 (local time) of the same day, Ministry of Intelligence agents raided the home of Amin Bazyan in Piranshahr, breaking down the door and arresting him without presenting a warrant. Bazyan was then taken to the Ministry’s detention centre in Orumiyeh.

On 27 December, the 17-year-old Hemin Shah-Mohammadi was also arrested without a warrant by the Ministry of Intelligence in Oshnavieh and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh.

The wave of arrests continued on 28 December, when Khaled Mahmoudian, from Rabat, West Azerbaijan Province, was arrested by security forces at his family home in the city without any judicial warrant and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh.

At dawn on 29 December, Ministry of Intelligence agents raided the family home of two civilians, Jamal Sheikhepour and Afshin Khalifezadeh, in the village of Qom Qala in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, and arrested them without a warrant, and took them to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh.

In the early hours of the same day, security forces arrested Kurdish civilians Fayegh Ghaderzadeh, a 22-year-old taxi driver, and Rasoul Pourkhezri without warrants in Mahabad and Oshnavieh, taking them to security detention centres in Orumiyeh.

On the same day, Kourosh Azizi, a former Kurdish political prisoner, was arrested by security forces during a raid on his family home in Oshnavieh and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh.

Azizi was previously arrested in August 2018 by security forces in Oshnavieh and was provisionally released on bail six weeks later. In February 2019, the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Oshnavieh sentenced him to four years in prison for “acting against national security” through membership of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI). This sentence was later reduced to three years by the appeals court and he was sent to Oshnavieh Prison to serve his sentence on 22 December 2019. He was conditionally released in December 2020.

In the early hours of 30 December, Ministry of Intelligence agents in Oshnavieh raided the family homes of Rahman Tabesh, a former political prisoner, and Hedi Shadi-Khah without presenting a judicial warrant. During the raid, the agents searched the properties, seized several personal belongings, and arrested the two individuals and took them to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh.

Tabesh was previously arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in Oshnavieh in July 2020 and was provisionally released on bail on 24 September of the same year. Subsequently, the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Oshnavieh, presided over by Judge Rezai, sentenced him to a total of four years and three months in prison on charges such as “assembly and collusion against national security” through membership of the PDKI. In March 2021, he was sent to Naqadeh Prison to serve his sentence, and was released under a judiciary amnesty in February 2023.

As part of these arrests, on 29 and 30 December, two brothers from Mahabad, Khaled Bekri and Mohammad Bekri, were taken into custody by Ministry of Intelligence agents and taken to the Ministry’s detention facility in Orumiyeh.

On 30 December, civilian Amin Jan-Goli was also arrested without a warrant by the Ministry of Intelligence in Oshnavieh and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh.

On 31 December, Rizgar Mowloudi and Kamyar Izadi, both 17 years old, along with Mohammad Afidi, from the village of Sahulan in Mahabad, were arrested after being summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence’s office in Mahabad and were taken to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh.

Additionally, Abdollah Gholizadeh and his son Hemin Gholizadeh, who were arrested by the IRGC Intelligence Organisation in late November in Bukan, were provisionally released on bail in recent days.