Category: Ethnic Minorities

Death Penalty Upheld for Two Kurdish Political Prisoners

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Ethnic Minorities
Abolqasem Salvati, Lughman Moradi, Zanyar Moradi

HRANA News Agency – The Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for two Kurdish political prisoners locked up in Rajai-Shahr Prison.Both prisoners, Zanyar Moradi and Lughman Moradi, have been verbally notified of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the public defender assigned to these cases was unable to confirm the ruling although his clients have already been notified verbally by the authorities.
Zanyar Moradi and Lughman Moradi have been accused of killing the son of Friday Prayer Imam in Marivan and two members of his entourage on the orders of the British Secret Intelligence Services (MI6) and with the help of a Kurdish political party.After their confessions were aired on the state television, Judge Abolqasem Salvati presiding over the Revolutionary Court, Branch 15, sentenced them to be hanged in public.
When Zanyar Moradi and Lughman Moradi were transferred to Rajai-Shahr Prison, they wrote a letter detailing the account of physical tortures endured by them in prison and declared the confessions false and void since they were obtained under means of torture.In their letter, Zanyar Moradi and Lughman Moradi further explained that in addition to being severely tortured, they were threatened to be raped using a bottle if they didn’t confess to the crime.
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Mokhtar Asadi Suspended from Teaching in Kurdistan

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Ethnic Minorities
Khosro Saki, Mokhtar Asadi

HRANA News Agency – Although the new school year began more than two weeks ago in Iran, Mokhtar Asadi is still forbidden to teach in any schools throughout Kurdistan.Mokhtar Asadi is a member of Teachers’ Union of Kurdistan and a human rights activist.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the Department of Education in Kurdistan Province has prevented any schools from accepting Mokhtar Asadi’s teaching credentials.As a result, he remains in a state of limbo and suspended indefinitely.
The Ministry of Education and the Department of Education in Alburz Province have issued several letters to ask the officials in Kurdistan to allow Mokhtar Asadi to teach in Sanandaj.Teachers throughout the city of Sanandaj have signed a petition demanding to restore Mokhtar Asadi to his teaching post in Sanandaj.The petition has been submitted to the director of Kurdistan’s Department of Education, Khosro Saki, while more signatures are being collected.
Mokhtar Asadi holds a Masters degree in Sociology from Tehran University and is a social and human rights activist.In the last few years, he was dismissed from his teaching position for several months and was exiled for years.In 2010, he was arrested and locked up in solitary confinement for months in Rajai-Shahr Prison and then Ward 209 of Evin but was eventually released on bail.
Copyright © 2009-2011 All Rights Reserved

26 Kurdish Prisoners of Conscience on Hunger Strike in Rajai-Shahr

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Ethnic Minorities
Abdullah Khosrozadeh, Hesam Mohammadi, Heyman Mahmoud Takhti, Hossein Heydari, Mamousta Mohammad Baraie, Sobhan Ahmadzadeh

HRANA News Agency – Twenty six Kurdish prisoners of conscience have gone on hunger strike in Rajai-Shahr Prison located in the city of Karaj.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), twenty six members of Kurdish ethnic minority locked up in Ward 2 of Rajai-Shahr Prison have begun an open-ended hunger strike to protest against violations of their rights and discriminations imposed on them by prison officials.

It has been reported that a few days ago, Ward 2’s warden, Mr. Soltani, encouraged several regular prisoners to instigate a brawl with one of the Kurdish prisoners of conscience, Hesam Mohammadi.After the fight broke out, Hesam Mohammadi was first transferred to the quarantine ward and then to another cell block in Rajai-Shahr Prison.However, no disciplinary action was taken against regular prisoners who initiated the fight.
Since there have been other instances of such discriminations against Kurdish prisoners of conscience in the past, Hesam Mohammadi’s cellmates decided to react this time and protested against repeated acts of bigotry towards Kurds.However, prison officials refused to address inmates’ concerns and remained indifferent and silent.
Amongst Kurdish prisoners locked up in Ward 2 of Rajai-Shahr Prison, there are Sunni prisoners of conscience such as Mamousta Mohammad Baraie, Abdullah Khosrozadeh, Hossein Heydari, Sobhan Ahmadzadeh, Heyman Mahmoud Takhti and a number of other Kurdish Sunni activists.These prisoners have been denied the right to be kept in the cell block allocated to inmates arrested for political reasons.Additionally, they have not been permitted to use furlough, have regular prison visits with their families or meet with Iranian judicial authorities such as a representative from the prosecutor’s office in Tehran
 

Environmentalist Farshad Maroufi Vanished

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Ethnic Minorities
Farshad Maroufi

HRANA News Agency – After Iranian Intelligence Agency in the city of Naghadeh summoned Farshad Maroufi several days ago, the environmentalist has vanished, and his whereabouts are unknown.

According to a report by Kurdistan Press Agency (KURDPA), Farshad Maroufi was summoned by the Intelligence Agency a few days ago.Since then, there has been no news of him.During recent demonstrations to protest against Lake Urmia drying up, he was present and active in the city of Naghadeh, West Azerbaijan Province.Farshad Maroufi is a Kurdish citizen and a member of the Society of Environmentalists, Hatva, in the city of Naghadeh.
Despite repeated inquires made by Farshad Maroufi’s family, the officials at the Intelligence Agency in the city of Naghadeh have announced to know nothing about the subject.As a result, his family’s concerns and worries have increased.
 

Eight Kurdish Sunni citizens were detained in Muchesh, Kamyaran

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Ethnic Minorities
Abedin Saed Mucheshi, Ali Saed Panah, Asadollah Saed Mucheshi, Ataollah Mohamadian, Fardin Saed Mucheshi, Hamed Awseti, Mehdi Saed Mucheshi, Saber Ayoubi


HRANA News Agency – Eight Kurdish Sunni citizens (followers of Maktab Koran) from Muchesh, were detained by security forces after they were called by police station.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on Sunday 21 October, eight Kurdish Sunni citizens were called by local police station. But at the entrance there was a car from security forces, detained and transferred them to the Intelligence Agency of Kamyaran.
The name of detainees are: Ataollah Mohamadian, Asadollah Saed Mucheshi, Abedin Saed Mucheshi, Mehdi Saed Mucheshi, Ali Saed Panah, Fardin Saed Mucheshi, Saber Ayoubi and Hamed Awseti.
It is said, one their charges is distributing Maktab Koran’s announcements about the Kurdish Sunni teachers who are forbidden of teaching.
Maktab Koran is a Kurdish Sunni religious movement founded by َAllama Ahmed Moftizadeh.

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Three Student Activists Arrested in Sanandaj

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Ethnic Minorities
Mehdi Dohago, Milad Karimi, Soran Daneshvar

HRANA News Agency – Over the past few days, three student activists, Mehdi Dohago, Milad Karimi and Soran Daneshvar, have been arrested by security agents in the city of Sanandaj.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), when three members of Democratic Union of Kurdish Students were summoned to the Intelligence Agency’s office in Sanandaj, they were arrested.There has been no news of them thus far.Mehdi Dohago is the secretary and Milad Karimi the deputy secretary of Democratic Union of Kurdish Students.Soran Daneshvar is responsible for the coordinating committee of the Union.
Previously, when Democratic Union of Kurdish Students was declared illegal, and the authorities shut down the Union, Mehdi Dohago was also detained, and other members were summoned to the Intelligence Agency’s office multiple times.
Democratic Union of Kurdish Students has issued a statement in relation to recent arrests.In part of the statement, the Union says, “Student organizations including the Union from the day it was established in 2004 have utilized rationality, tolerance and non-violent principles as their guiding values to independently pursuit activism within the framework of the constitution.The government’s policies towards such student organizations and the Union prove the nature of a totalitarian system aiming to purge all thoughts, voices and religious and linguistic diversity into one unit.Meanwhile, imposing heavy consequences on dissent in the society is the means by which the government is striving to reach its unattainable goals in Kurdistan.”
Last week during an orchestrated effort to increase pressure on civil and trade organizations in Kurdistan, eight member of Teachers’ Union were arrested on charges of acting against the national security, the membership in Teachers’ Union of Kurdistan and defending the families of those executed and political prisoners.The activists were later released because of the pressure exerted by teachers who attended gatherings to protest against these arrests.
 

Three Iranian Sunni M.D. students were fired with no certification

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Ethnic Minorities
Kakeh Ahmad Moftizadeh, Leyla Borna, Sarveh Heidari, Somayeh Hoshyari


HRANA News Agency – Three Iranian Kurdish M.D. students with Sunni faith were fired from college with no certification.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Three Iranian Kurdish M.D. students with Sunni faith (followers of Kakeh Ahmad Moftizadeh)  were fired from college after they presented their final thesis. And, the college authorities in Kurdistan and Hamedan of Iran did not deliver their M.D. certificates. They were told their certificates have been seized by Intelligence Ministry.
 
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IRGC Invites Kurds to Take up Arms Against PJAK

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Ethnic Minorities
Iran

HRANA News Agency – The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC) in Salmas County has published and distributed a pamphlet asking tribal forces and those living in border regions to fight against Kurdish Workers’ Party (PJAK).

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), IRGC has asked Kurdish citizens to begin an armed conflict against Kurdish Workers’ Party.IRGC agents have begun an orchestrated propaganda against PJAK by pressuring and threatened underprivileged citizens in the border regions to join the Basiji Milita in order to help the Islamic government to defeat PJAK.
In the pamphlet released by the Revolutionary Guard, IRGC warns the members and supporters of PJAK in Iran and says, “We ask courageous Kurds and honorable tribes in Salmas County not to tolerate injustice and oppression perpetrated by PJAK and to defend your honor, lives, properties, families and country by waging war against this group.Don’t remain silent until the last of these mercenaries are wiped off the face of this earth.”
According to the international rules of war and military engagement, civilians and their safety and security must not be endangered or threatened deliberately by the armed conflict between two adversaries.IRGC’s statement calling for armed confrontation between civilians and PJAK has militarized the region and has intentionally carried the current conflict into civilians’ lives.
 

Checkpoints & Inspection Stations Throughout Western Provinces

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Ethnic Minorities
Naleh Shakineh

HRANA News Agency – During the last few days, Iranian security and military forces have been placed on alert in different regions of Kermanshah Province and the city of Kamyaran.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), military forces have been positioned in all roads leading into and out of Kermanshah and Kamyaran.Furthermore, checkpoints and inspection stations have been set up between these locations and the neighboring cities. The heavy presence of security forces has created a tense military atmosphere throughout these regions.

Plain clothes agents working for the Intelligence Bureau of IRGC have been stopping vehicles and conducting searches and interrogations in Naleh Shakineh Road, Shamshir Road, the gates leading into the cities of Paveh and Nosod and also along Ghazanchi Highway.
It has been reported that plain clothes agents ambush vehicles at night throughout the region to perform searches and question the passengers.As a result, a tense atmosphere of fear and apprehension hangs over Iran’s western provinces.In several incidents, native Basiji Militia members with concealed faces have harassed and insulted passengers and local residents.

Kurdish Activists Still Held in Solitary Confinement

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Ethnic Minorities
Behrooz Darvand, Ezad Aldin Heidari, Farhad Vakili Nia, Farzad Haghshenas, Jamal Khani, Maryam Amini, Maziar Mohammadi, Naeem Najafi, Sajad Jahanfard, Sharif Bajour, Sina Bijanpour

HRANA News Agency – Although several months have passed since a number of Kurdish political and social activists and literary intellectuals have been arrested in different cities throughout Kurdistan, they are still behind bars held in a legal state of limbo in solitary confinement.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the following individuals are locked up in isolation cells in the Intelligence Agency’s Detention Center (Maydan Naft) in Kermanshah since August 5, 2011 and are being pressured to confess to having connections with Kurdish parties:
 

  • Sajad Jahanfard, an author and a scholar and researcher
  • Farhad Vakili Nia
  • Ezad Aldin Heidari
  • Maziar Mohammadi


The following four other social activists and literary intellectuals who were arrested at the same time have been released on bail approximately equal to $50,000:

 

  • Maryam Amini
  • Naeem Najafi
  • Jamal Khani
  • Sina Bijanpour


Farzad Haghshenas is another Kurdish activist from the city of Marivan. He was arrested in front of his shop on May 11, 2011 and is still in solitary confinement in Intelligence Agency’s Detention Center. Although more than 3 months have passed, no charges have been filed against him.He has been allowed to see him mother and brother only for a few minutes during this time.

Sharif Bajour is a Kurdish environmentalist and a member of Management Council for Green Chya Forum in Marivan, Kurdistan Province.He was summoned to the Intelligence Agency’s office in Marivan and subsequently arrested on July 23, 2011 when he complied with the order.
Behrooz Darvand and Iraj Ghaderi were also arrested on July 23, 2011 by security forces in the city of Marivan.These three Kurdish environmentalists and members of Management Council for Green Chya Forum still remain in police custody.Behrooz Darvand and Iraj Ghaderi have been transferred from Intelligence Agency’s Detention Center to Marivan Prison.