Kurdish civil rights activist Kajal Rahmani has been on hunger strike in solitary confinement at the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, since her arrest by Ministry of Intelligence forces on 6 June, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.

The whereabouts of the activist’s husband, Isa Feyzi, and her brother, Danyal Rahmani, who were arrested on the same day, remain unknown, with security and judicial authorities refusing to disclose any information about their condition, place of detention or fate.

Rahmani, who comes from one of Kurdistan’s dadkhah families (a Persian term used for victims’ relatives and survivors seeking truth and justice), was taken after her arrest to the Ministry of Intelligence office in Kamyaran and interrogated for several hours before being transferred to solitary confinement in the women’s ward of the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj.

She began a hunger strike on the first day of her detention in protest at her arrest and the arrest of members of her family, informed sources said.

Information received indicates that Rahmani is taken every day to a security detention facility for interrogation and returned at night to solitary confinement at the Juvenile Detention Centre.

Meanwhile, no information has been made available about the whereabouts or condition of Feyzi and Danyal Rahmani since their arrest.

Their families have repeatedly visited and followed up with the Ministry of Intelligence office and judicial authorities in Kamyaran and Sanandaj, but have received no clear answer about their fate.

The three Kurdish activists have been denied family visits and access to legal representation since their arrest.

Ministry of Intelligence forces arrested Kajal Rahmani and Danyal Rahmani without warrants and with the use of violence in the early hours of 6 June, after surrounding their family homes and breaking down the entrance doors.

Informed sources said security forces first mistakenly entered another residential unit in the same building. One family member, who was asleep at the time, went into shock and lost consciousness after being confronted by armed and masked officers.

Security forces also confiscated the mobile phone of Feyzi, who was at home when his wife was arrested.

Hours later, Feyzi went to the headquarters of the Ministry of Intelligence in Kamyaran to seek information about the condition and place of detention of his wife and brother-in-law, but was himself arrested without a warrant by security officers who claimed they intended to ask him “a few questions”.

Feyzi, a civil rights activist and former political prisoner, was previously arrested on 5 January 2019 during a wave of arrests of civil rights activists in Kamyaran.

After more than five months in detention, he was temporarily released on bail from Kamyaran Prison, and was later sentenced by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj to six years’ suspended imprisonment on charges of “acting against national security”.

Kajal and Danyal Rahmani are members of a dadkhah family in Kurdistan. Their brother, Jamal Rahmani, a member of the leadership council of the Democratic and Free Society of East Kurdistan (KODAR), was killed by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces in 2018.

His family has repeatedly approached security bodies in Kamyaran and Sanandaj in recent years to request the return of his body or information about his burial place, but has received no response.

Rebin Rahmani, another brother in the family, is a former political prisoner and one of the directors of the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).