ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish civil rights activist was arrested at his home in Mariwan, Kurdistan province on Thursday morning and transferred to an unknown location, his family told a human rights watchdog.
Security forces entered Aram Fathi’s house and “resorted to violence” when his mother protested, a relative of Fathi told Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), an NGO that monitors human rights violations in Iran. The security forces “claimed they had a court order,” the relative said.
The security forces also seized Fathi’s personal belongings, including his cell phone, laptop and books.
Fathi, a poet, is part of a team of civil activists working to end the death penalty in Iran, one case at a time, trying to get hanging sentences commuted. Speaking to Rudaw English in March, Fathi said he and his fellow activists were at risk of being arrested and have faced backlash for their activism, mainly for the political cases they advocate on behalf of.
Fathi has been arrested and interrogated several times over the past years. His house was raided by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers in January last year, but he was not at home. He later visited the IRGC intelligence department and was arrested, according to KHRN.
He was also arrested in 2018 and in 2016, and has faced charges of “disturbing public order” and “disturbing public opinion,” according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Iranian authorities have tightened the noose on labor activists, journalists, satirists, environmentalists, anti-death penalty campaigners, and researchers, since the heightening of US-Iran tensions and the re-imposition of US sanctions on Iran in 2018, 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 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran.
