36 Kurds detained by security forces in Iran last month: Hengaw

Out of the 36 Kurdish detainees, only nine have been released from custody while 27 others remain behind bars.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A total of 36 Kurds were detained by security forces in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat) in the past month, according to statistics by human rights organization Hengaw.

From March 21 to April 20, over one citizen was arrested per day in Rojhilat, the organization reported.

Out of the 36 Kurdish detainees, only nine have been released from custody while 27 others remain behind bars.

“Nine people were arrested on charges of political activity, 18 people for civic activism, eight Kulbars (border couriers) were arrested for trading and carrying goods across the border, and one Kurdish resident from Kalar [a city in the Kurdistan Region],” Hengaw said on their website.

The resident from Kalar “was arrested after being shot and wounded by the Revolutionary Guards,” it added.

Thirty-five of the Kurds arrested were from Rojhilat (11 are from Baneh, 10 from Piranshahr, four from Mariwan, three from Dehgolan, two from Mahabad, two from Saqqez, two from Qasr-e Shirin) and one from the Kurdistan Region.

Iran has a poor history of human rights violations, especially against its Kurdish population.

In the past, Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan of Iran-Geneva (KMMK-G), and other rights groups have urged Iran to release political prisoners and provide them with a fair trial.

“Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law and places individuals at serious risk of extrajudicial execution, torture, and other gross human rights violations,” Amnesty International previously said regarding the state of human rights in Iran.