Ministry of Intelligence agents have arrested five Kurdish civilians and activists in the cities of Sanandaj, Mahabad and Saqqez as part of the latest wave of arrests in Kurdish cities.
According to information received by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), the individuals – Mohyeddin Khaledian, Vahab Khediripour, Rahman Rahimpour, Jalal Parhizkar and Sarvar Hama-Nazdar – were taken into custody by the Ministry of Intelligence and transferred to detention centres in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, and Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.
On 29 January, intelligence agents in Sanandaj raided Mohyeddin Khaledian’s workplace and arrested him without a warrant.
Security forces later raided his family home, where they insulted family members and confiscated personal belongings, including photographs of his daughter Beritan Sna, a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who was killed in a Turkish air strike in 2022.
In Mahabad, West Azerbaijan province, Vahab Khediripour was arrested after being summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence.
He is the cousin of Shamal Khediripour, who was killed during the anti-government Women, Life, Freedom protests in the city. His brother Sohrab Khediripour, a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), was also killed in a clash with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2021.
On the same day, Rahman Rahimpour, a former political prisoner from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents in the city as he was returning home.
Security forces later raided Rahimpour’s home and confiscated mobile phones and tablets belonging to family members.
Rahimpour was previously arrested on 12 August 2020 and sentenced to ten months in prison on charges of “propaganda against the state”. He was sent to prison in 2021 to serve his sentence.
In recent days, security forces have also arrested Sarvar Hama-Nazdar and Jalal Parhizkar at their homes in the village of Haji Ali-Kand, near Mahabad.
These arrests come amid a wider crackdown on Kurdish activists and political dissent in Iran. In recent weeks, dozens of Kurdish civilians and activists have been detained by the IRGC’s Intelligence Organisation and the Ministry of Intelligence.
Many of those arrested are believed to have been targeted for their involvement in the recent general strike and protests against the death sentences handed down to Kurdish political prisoners Pakhshan Azizi and Verisheh (Wirishe) Moradi.