Three Months after Crackdown in Mahabad, Three Remain in Custody

Mahabad security forces arrested more than 10 Kurdish students in February 2013 and transferred them to the Intelligence Office Information Unit Detention Center. Pictured: Four of those arrested, from right to left, Ghassem Ahmadi, Khosrow Kordpour, Farough Samani, and Khedr Rasoul Morovat.

Several Mahabad citizens arrested in February have been released on bail from Mahabad Prison over the past several weeks, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Two detainees, Farough Samani and his cousin Reza Samani, however, remain in “temporary detention” in a state of limbo. Another Kurdish citizen, Khedr Rasoul Morovat, remains in the custody of security forces 70 days after his arrest.

According to the human rights activist, Mahabad security forces arrested more than 10 Kurdish students in February 2013 and transferred them to the Intelligence Office Information Unit Detention Center. Cousins Farzad Samani and Reza Samani were arrested on February 17, but the identities of the other detainees were not announced. Five days after Farzad Samani’s arrest, security forces went to his father’s house, where they searched the premises, acted disrespectfully towards his family, and arrested his older brother Farough Samani, an artist and former political prisoner. On February 25, security forces arrested Khedr Rasoul Morovat, a cultural activist and former political prisoner.

The human rights activist told the Campaign that Reza Samani suffers from a blood disease, his health is currently in a critical state, and he must be immediately hospitalized outside the prison, but judicial and prison authorities have not agreed to his hospital transfer request.

Regarding Khedr Rasoul Morovat’s latest status, the source told the Campaign that security forces transferred him from the Mahabad Intelligence Office Information Unit Detention Center to the Orumiyeh Intelligence Office Detention Center, and that since his arrest he has only been allowed two short phone calls to his family, informing them of his detention location. His family’s and lawyer’s efforts to visit him have been fruitless, and his investigative judge, Mr. Zaheri, has stated that there can be no visits by his family and lawyer without authorization from Orumiyeh Intelligence Office officials.