Following the recent arrest of Environmental activists in Kamyaran, another Kurdish activist, Amanj Ghorbani was arrested at his workplace, the Department of Environment. So far, 8 people have been detained in Kamyaran.
Farhad Mohammadi, a lawyer, Fazel Qiatassi, Reza Asadi and Hadi Kamangar, secretary and members of the Kurdistan branch of the National Unity Party respectively, were each detained on January 01 and 02. Isa Faizi, Rashid Montazeri and Hossein Kamangar, former members of the party, were arrested two days later on January 04. Most of these people have also been active in the field of the environment while Hossein Kamangar has been previously arrested twice for political activism.
The security forces also arrested Amanj Ghorbani, a journalist and a well-known Kurdish environmentalist, on January 06. In addition to being a senior environmental expert and employee of Department of Environment in Kamyaran, this activist has been involved in collective activities to combat fire in Shaho mountains and he has been writing research papers on strategic environmental issues.
Security forces arrested these activists while subjecting them to physical and verbal violence such as covering their heads with a sack when transferring some of them to the detention centres. All detainees have been arrested and transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence Detention Centre in Sanandaj for interrogation.
Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has strongly expressed concern over the continued and prolonged arrests of Kurdish activists as well as the intense violence towards them during their arrest, the poor situation in which they are kept and the way they are treated in addition to the likelihood of arresting and prosecuting them on account of security allegations.
We also condemn the arrest of these Kurdish activists. We urge the media and human rights organisations to stand up for freedom of these Kurdish activists.
