Security forces have subjected retired Kurdish teacher and teachers’ union activist Jahangir Rostami to beatings and psychological pressure in an attempt to force his son, cultural activist Ehsan Rostami, into making coerced confessions.
According to information obtained by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), security forces raided Rostami’s home in Harsin, Kermanshah Province, on 17 October and transferred him to Evin Prison in Tehran.
The beatings he received during his arrest were so severe that he sustained visible injuries to his head and face, prompting even the Harsin prosecutor to criticise the excessive violence.
A source familiar with the case informed the KHRN that, following Rostami’s transfer to Evin Prison, interrogators arranged a meeting between him and his son, Ehsan, who has been detained since August. They exploited the father’s poor physical state to put psychological pressure on Ehsan to make false confessions.
Rostami’s arrest came at a time when his son and nephew, Ehsan and Ramin Rostami, were already in custody.
They had been detained on 20 August in Tehran alongside three other cultural activists: Hassan Touzandejani, Marjan Ardeshirzadeh and Nima Mehdizadegan.
Ehsan and Ramin Rostami’s families previously reported that both detainees had gone on hunger strike in Ward 209 of Evin Prison to protest their continued detention without due process.
The Harsin Teachers’ Union issued a statement condemning the arrest of Jahangir Rostami, a union member, and denouncing the security pressures placed on the families of detainees to obtain forced confessions.
“We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Jahangir Rostami, a member of the Harsin Teachers’ Union, and we stand firmly with his esteemed family until his freedom is secured”, the statement said.
