Two Kurds, Wahid Sheikh Mohammedi and Fardin Bayazidi, were arrested on unknown charges by Iranian security forces in the town of Oshnavieh on Sunday and taken to an unknown location, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported. At least 11 people have recently been arrested in Oshnavieh, West Azerbaijan province.
Security forces raided Mohammadi’s house and arrested him, while they Bayazidi was picked up on the street.
In total, at least 78 people have been arrested in Kurdish cities since January 9 as part of a crackdown on activists, students, and teachers, according to data collected by KHRN. In one three-day period, 11 Kurdish students and activists were arrested across Iran.
Three Kurdish women activists were arrested in January and transferred to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence detention center in Urmia. Human rights organizations said they do not know why they were arrested, or if charges have been brought against them.
Human rights watchdogs have also documented tens of executions in late 2020 and into this year. Within one month, 26 people were executed, including a woman, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an NGO that monitors human rights violations across Iran.
Nearly 30 Baluchis have been executed in the past two months.
Since the heightening of US-Iran tensions and the re-imposition of US sanctions on Iran in 2018, Iranian authorities have tightened the noose on labor activists, journalists, satirists, environmentalists, anti-death penalty campaigners, and researchers, detaining them in droves and sentencing some in trials whose fairness has been questioned.
Tens of thousands of people are held as political prisoners in Iranian jails, for charges including advocating for democracy and promoting women's or workers' rights.
Ethnic minority groups, including Kurds and Azeris, are disproportionately detained and more harshly sentenced for acts of political dissidence, according to a July 2019 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran.
In 2019, at least 2,000 people were arrested in Iran for joining armed Kurdish forces or for activism deemed suspicious, according to data provided to Rudaw by KHRN founder Rebin Rahmani. In 2020, at least 400 people were arrested.
