The Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, has detained Madeh Fathi, a Kurdish civil rights activist and former member of the board of directors of the Green Society of Kurdistan, on 5 August.
Fathi spoke to his family in a short phone call three days after his arrest. He said he has gone on a hunger strike in objection to his illegal detention at the detention centre of the intelligence ministry, sources told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
The source added that security forces summoned, interrogated, and detained him several times in recent years.
In the most recent case, security forces arrested him at his home on 10 August 2020. He was released on bail on 16 October 2020 after being held for two months in the detention centre of the intelligence ministry in Sanandaj.
Moreover, in May 2019, a court sentenced the activist to one year in prison and five years suspended imprisonment on “acting against national security” charges. The sentence was then reduced to seven months as he did not appeal against the verdict.
Security forces also arrested Fathi’s wife and environmental activist Sahar Kazemi in Sanandaj on 9 August 2018. She was interrogated for several months in the harsh conditions of the detention facility of the intelligence ministry.
In February 2019, Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj, presided over by Judge Saeidi, sentenced Kazemi to five years in prison on charges of “acting against national security”.
The Court of Appeals of Kurdistan province later commuted the sentence to 20 months in prison.
