Hawram Mehr-Navaei, a Kurdish political prisoner from Bukan, West Azerbaijan Province, was previously arrested during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising and later released on bail.
In March 2023, he was sentenced to 54 months’ imprisonment on charges of “acting against national security” through alleged cooperation with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
In April 2023, he was transferred to Bukan Prison to serve his sentence and was later released under electronic monitoring.
He was arrested again on 3 April 2024 for taking part in Newroz celebrations.
Arrest
Mehr-Navaei was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence forces at his family home in Bukan on 13 June 2026 for unknown reasons while on furlough following the outbreak of war between the United States, Israel and Iran.
Defendant’s Rights
He was arrested without a warrant and has since been denied access to legal representation and family visits.
Despite repeated enquiries by his family to obtain information about his fate, security and judicial authorities have refused to provide any explanation regarding his situation.
Current Status
Mehr-Navaei is being held at the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.
Notes:
1. Women, Life, Freedom Uprising: Jina Amini (Mahsa Amini), a 21-year-old Kurdish woman from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, was arrested on a street in Tehran on 13 September 2022 by the morality police because of the way she was dressed. Shortly after her arrest, she was transferred to Kasra Hospital in Tehran with head injuries and symptoms of brain death, and passed away three days later on 16 September 2022. The government’s killing of Jina sparked unprecedented anti-government protests, which began with a large turnout at her funeral at Aichi Cemetery in Saqqez and quickly spread to many cities across Iran. These widespread protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which lasted for several months, resulted in at least 527 protesters being killed and thousands injured and arrested. The protests are known for their central slogan of “Women, Life, Freedom” (Kurdish: Jin, Jiyan, Azadi).
2. Article 499 of the Islamic Penal Code: “Anyone who joins one of the groups, associations, or branches of the associations mentioned in Article 498 shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of three months to five years, unless it is proven that they were unaware of the group’s objectives.”
3. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) was founded on 16 August 1945, with the aim of gaining autonomy for Iranian Kurdistan. According to the party’s charter, this political organisation, grounded in the “nationalist ideas and organizational structure of the Society for Kurdish Resurrection (KJK) and with a realistic and contemporary approach”, emerged as a modern entity in the political arena. KJK was the founder of the Republic of Kurdistan (22 January 1946 – 15 December 1946) in Mahabad. The republic lasted only 11 months, ending with an attack by the Iranian army, which executed its leaders, including Qazi Muhammad, the party leader and President of Kurdistan.
PDKI went through a period of armed struggle in the late 1960s, marked by internal party disputes, and ultimately, re-emerged as a political party on the eve of the 1979 revolution. Two of its leaders, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou and Sadegh Sharafkandi, were assassinated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in Europe in 1989 and 1992, respectively. In 2006, due to heightened internal conflicts, the party split into two factions: the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (HDK). These two factions eventually announced their reunification on 22 August 2022, after 15 years of separation.
The party has declared its ultimate goal as “the establishment of a democratic-socialist society” and its strategic slogan as “securing the rights of the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan within the framework of a federal democratic system in Iran”. The main headquarters of the PDKI is in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
