Kurdistan Human Rights Network

Eight Kurdish activists and civilians have been temporarily released on bail in recent days from the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj and Saqqez prison in Kurdistan Province, and Evin Prison in Tehran, Tehran Province. Samira Ahmadi, Safa Aeli, Azad Amini, Omid Moghaddas, Hiwa Tataei, and Hiwa Jahani were temporarily released from Sanandaj and Saqqez prisons on 17 October, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has...

The intelligence service of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Orumiyeh and Salmas, the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, have in the past months summoned the families of Kurdish political activists living in Europe and warned them about their children's political activities. Interrogators of the military-security organisation have threatened to detain and prosecute the families of the political activists. Reportedly, the Intelligence Organisation of the...

Iran's Ministry of Intelligence in the northwestern Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, temporarily released the civil rights activist Kazhal Nasri on 10 January. The activist was released on an electronic tag and was indefinitely barred from travelling to her village. She was released on a bail of 100 million Iranian Tomans – nearly 4,000 USD. Reportedly, security interrogators agreed to her temporary release two days after her mother went...

The University of Tabriz in northwestern Iran has expelled Kurdish doctoral student Soran Daneshvar at the request of the Ministry of Intelligence. Daneshvar is a Kurdish activist who began his PhD studies in Philosophy in late September. In mid-November, with the new Ministry of Science, Research and Technology taking office and the appointment of the new rector of the University of Tabriz, the PhD student was...

The situation and whereabouts of the arrested Kurdish environmental activist Navid Kohnehpoushi remain unknown after 45 days in detention. Despite repeated follow-ups by the activist's family in the security agencies and judicial authorities of Marivan, they have not received any explanation about where and why he is held in detention. Background On 31 October, the Ministry of Intelligence took hostage Kohnehpoushi's brother after they did not find...

Kurdish woman political activist Shahnaz Sadeghifar, who was released on bail from prison in April after 20 months in detention, has been rearrested. The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan province, summoned the activist on 14 November and imprisoned her in Orumiyeh Central Prison. Reportedly, the summoning came after the bail, which was previously provided for the temporary release of the political prisoner, had...

Swedish authorities have refused to grant asylum to an Iraqi Kurdish political activist, Hana Nasour, ordering the police on 8 October to deport her to Iraq. Hana Nasour, who grew up and was an activist in Iran, fears that the Iranian intelligence ministry would “pose a threat on her life” in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, she told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). “Security forces...

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...

An Iranian prosecutor’s office has extended the temporary detentions of two Kurdish activists for the third time while another activist has been transferred from the IRGC detention centre to Mahabad Prison. The Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of Mahabad extended the temporary detentions of Farzad Samani and Sakar Eini, two Kurdish activists from Mahabad, who had been arrested in Tehran on 9 January – the...