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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A member of an Iranian Kurdish party was arrested in Sulaimani on espionage charges, the party announced on Saturday, after the member had been missing for several days.
Komala Party’s secretariat, in a statement, said a member of their party was arrested by Kurdistan Region security forces on a charge of “espionage”.
“On April 13, 2021 a Komala Peshmerga by the name Smko Banfshi was arrested in Sulaimani by security forces on security charges,” reads the statement.
Komala is a leftist Kurdish armed opposition party based in the Kurdistan Region and fighting for the rights of Kurds in Iran. The party is divided into at least two branches.
Banfshi went missing on Tuesday morning after traveling from Sanandaj, Iran to Sulaimani. News of his disappearance was reported by local news outlets.
According to Komala, the party had reached out to the Sulaimani Asayish [internal security forces] and, after days of investigation, they were informed of his arrest.
"We cannot confirm the charges against him, for we had not seen such acts from him. We have to wait for the investigation results," Farzin Karbasi, Komala representative in Sulaimani, told Rudaw’s Shaho Amin on Saturday.
According to Karbasi, Banfshi joined their ranks six years ago and had previously been a member of another branch of the party in Iran.
Rudaw English reached out to Sulaimani Asayish, but they were not immediately available for comment.
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