Relatives of Slain Kurdish Separatists in Iran Slapped With Long Prison Sentences
The relatives of three alleged members of a banned Kurdish separatist organization in Iran have been sentenced to prison after being accused of collaborating with the group, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.
“In late June [2017], several members of Komala [armed separatist organization] were surrounded by the Revolutionary Guards, which killed three of the members and injured another and arrested him,” Amjad Hossein Panahi told CHRI in a phone interview from Germany on November 1.
“Now their relatives have been convicted only because they were inquiring about the fate of those who had been shot,” he said.
“Four months have passed since the incident and the authorities have still not delivered the bodies of the dead, and they are putting three family members in prison for asking questions,” he added.
Afshin Hossein Panahi, Zubair Hossein Panahi, and Ahmad Aminpanah have been sentenced to eight and a half, six, and five years in prison respectively.
The sentences were issued on October 25, 2017, by “Judge Saeedi,” first name unknown, of Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan Province.
A self-described “vanguard party of the liberating movement of the Kurdish nation,” Komala is a radical armed socialist group claiming to seek “freedom, and legitimate political and cultural rights” for Iran’s Kurdish minority population.
Zobeir Hossein Panahi and Ahmad Aminpanah are currently free on bail while Afshin Hossein Panahi remains in detention, Panahi told CHRI.
The armed clash between agents from the Hamzeh Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Sanandaj on June 23 resulted in the deaths of alleged Komala fighters Sabah Hossein Panahi, Hamed Seif Panahi, and Behzad Nouri.
A fourth alleged fighter, Ramin Hossein Panahi, was injured from bullet wounds to the stomach, back and legs and remains in detention.
“Ramin was able to see his mother at an unknown security location on October 31 for the first time, four months after he was detained,” Amjad Hossein Panahi told CHRI.
