ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Thirty-six civil society and human rights organizations called on Wednesday for urgent international action to be taken against the arbitrary detention of Kurdish activists in Iran, expressing concern over forced “confessions” gained by torture and ill-treatment.
“We, the undersigned 36 civil society and human rights organizations, call for the urgent attention of the international community to an ongoing wave of arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, and enforced disappearances by the Iranian authorities, targeting scores of people from Iran’s disadvantaged Kurdish minority,” the letter released on Wednesday read.
They added that they are “seriously concerned that those detained are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment aimed at extracting forced “confessions”, and that these may be later used in grossly unfair trials for spurious national security related offenses.”
Since January 6, at least 96 individuals from Iran’s Kurdish minority have been arrested by Iranian ministry intelligence agents in at least 19 cities, with the highest number of arrests recorded in Bokan in West Azerbaijan province, read the letter. At least 40 of them have been subjected to enforced disappearances.
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 Kurdish human rights groups, over 500 Kurdish people were arrested in 2020, out of which four received death penalties and at least 159 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one month to 17 years.
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. At least 500 people were arrested in 2020.
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.
Iranian forces arrested a Kurdish teacher and a journalist in Sanandaj and Oshnavieh late-January, Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported.
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