ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A former Kurdish political prisoner who was detained three days ago in Turkey despite being registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a refugee, could face years in prison if she is deported back to Iran where she endured two years of imprisonment for participating in anti-government protest in November 2019. Fatemeh Davand whose images circulated around the world in November 2019 as she stood on roof of a car in her hometown of Bukan in the Kurdish region encouraging people to protest against the government, fled Iran five months ago after she was freed conditionally. “My wife is a political prisoner and she spent two years in prison … she has been in Turkey for three to four months … three days ago she was detained in Kayseri and the authorities handed her to the immigration authorities and after establishing her identity, she was freed,” Loghman Yousefi, her husband told Rudaw's Fouad Haqiqi on Saturday. “Yesterday she was called to go to Nevsehir city to collect her UN refugee card.” When Davand arrived there, a police officer made some inappropriate remark to which Davand responded, according to her husband. “Then they arrested her and took her to a deportation camp in Kayseri city.” Now the family fear that if she is returned to Iran, she could even face the initial charge of Moharebeh, enmity against God, for which the punishment is death penalty. Davand has two sons aged 9 and 15 and a daughter aged 13. “My children are depressed and they are worried about what is going to happen to their mother,” Yousefi told Rudaw English on Saturday. “She may have to spend the original jail term and a new case could be opened against her.” Davand was detained on the evening of November 17, 2019 in the city of Saqez by agents of the ministry of intelligence as millions of Iranians protested against a crippling increase in price of petrol. The government increased the price of petrol overnight unexpectedly angering millions of Iranians who were already suffering under the US-imposed crippling sanctions. Over ten thousand people were detained including Davand and somewhere between 300 to 1500 were gunned down by the Iranian security forces across the country. The mother of three was charged with enmity against God at the 1st Branch of Mahabad revolutionary court amongst other charges. The charge was changed to plotting against the national security. She was sentenced to 5 years and on day and after she did not appeal the decision, the judge reduced the sentence 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 headscarf. Davand spent nearly two years in prison and she was freed last November. She then took the perilous journey across the land border into Turkey illegally, leaving behind her husband and her three children. Once in Turkey, she registered with the UNHCR to avoid being labelled as an illegal immigrant which would have put her at the risk of deportation. She even testified via videolink before a people’s tribunal in London known as Iran Atrocities (Aban) Tribunal, which is a reference to the Iranian month of Aban during which the protesters were gunned down in 2019. Davand was called before the tribunal as witness number 437 where she described how she was treated inside prison and forced to make televised confessions under duress. Her 15 year old son Arya who travelled to Turkey to see her mother was detained on return to Iran in early March and charged with propaganda against the state. "She was one of the leading protesters in bloody November protest. Her life will be in a serious danger," Masih Alinjead , a prominent Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist tweeted. "Please help us to be heard; her life would be in a serious danger." Additional reporting by Sangar Abdulrahman
