Aban Tribunal urges Turkish authorities to halt deportation of detained Kurdish woman

Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A people’s tribunal in London on Monday urged Turkish authorities to halt the possible deportation of a Kurdish female political prisoner, who was recently detained in Turkey, saying the move would put her life in “grave danger.”

The consul of Iran Atrocities, also known as Aban Tribunal “has sent an urgent request to Turkish authorities” confirming that Fatemeh Davand’s life “will be in grave danger if she is returned to Iran,” read an email sent to Rudaw English by the tribunal.

The name of the tribunal is a reference to the Iranian month of Aban during which protesters were gunned down in 2019. 

Davand, a mother of three, was detained by Turkish police on Friday in the central city of Kayseri, her husband told Rudaw a day later. Her arrest has raised concerns among human rights activists and her family members regarding her possible deportation.

The Kurdish activist was a leading protestor during Iran’s November 2019 protests against an increase in petrol prices. 

 

At the time, images of Davand circulated on social media as she stood on the roof of a car in her hometown of Bukan in the Kurdish region (Rojhelat) of Iran, encouraging people to protest against the Iranian government.

Davand was detained on the evening of November 17, 2019, by agents of the ministry of intelligence. She was sentenced to five years, which was later reduced to three years and nine months. Additionally, she was sentenced to five months and 30 lashes for disrupting the public order in Bukan and appearing without a headscarf.

She was conditionally released from prison last November, when she decided to take the perilous journey of crossing into Turkey illegally, leaving behind her husband and children in Iran.

However, she later enrolled herself with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and became a legal refugee.