Arrest

Mohammad Tadayyoni was arrested along with several other civil rights activists during a raid by dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence agents on Ashkan Fahim’s residence in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, on 15 September 2023.

The military-security forces violently broke down doors and windows to arrest him and others present at the scene.

Tadayyoni was subjected to severe torture for one month in the IRGC Intelligence detention facility at Al-Mahdi Base in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province, before being transferred to Mahabad Prison on 18 October 2023.

Judicial Process

In December 2023, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad, presided over by Judge Dousti, sentenced Tadayyoni to three years and nine months of imprisonment and two years of exile on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” through membership of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).

Current Status

Tadayyoni is currently being held in Mahabad Prison.

Notes:

1. Article 610 of the Islamic Penal Code: “If two or more individuals gather and conspire to commit crimes against the internal or external security of the country or to facilitate the means for committing such crimes, they shall be sentenced to two to five years’ imprisonment, unless they are considered mohareb (those who commit enmity against God).”

2. The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) was established in 2004 in the Qandil Mountains along the border of Iraqi Kurdistan with Iranian Kurdistan. This party follows the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and bases its activities on the paradigm of a “democratic and ecological society based on women’s freedom”.

According to the party’s charter, PJAK considers the establishment of democratic confederalism and a political form of democratic self-governance for organising people to build a “democratic nation” as one of its fundamental goals. PJAK also participated in the establishment of the East Kurdistan Democratic and Free Society (KODAR). The headquarters of this party is in the mountainous areas between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan.