Open letter to Mr. Javaid Rehman over recent arrests in Iran

Dr. Amir Sharifi | Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group | via iKurd.net

Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group’s Condemnation of Recent Arrests by the Islamic Republic of Iran and Call for Action to Release Kurdish and non-Kurdish prisoners in Iran

An open letter to Mr. Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Dear Mr. Javaid Rehman: Feb 4, 2021

Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group joins civil society and human rights organizations to express grave concern over recent arbitrary arrests of Kurdish and non-Kurdish civil right and human rights activists throughout Iran. We call upon all humanitarian organizations and individuals to call for the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees. We express our solidarity with the detainees, their families, and signatories of a protest letter, some of whom have been arrested for defending the rights of the detainees.

While over 100 Kurds have been detained in less than a month, in recent days an increasing number of human rights and civil rights activists have been arrested and as usual held incommunicado. The detainees are in danger of draconian torture to extract enforced confessions for which the Islamic Republic is notorious before harsh sentences ranging from lengthy imprisonment to summary executions, are enforced.

As a reliable report indicates “since 6 January 2021, at least 96 individuals (88 men and 8 women) from Iran’s Kurdish minority, including civil society activists, labour rights activists, environmentalists, writers, university students and formerly imprisoned political activists as well as individuals with no known history of activism, have been arrested by the intelligence unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards or ministry of intelligence agents, at times in a violent manner.”

Although excruciatingly painful, this is not the first nor the last episode of such arbitrary arrests in a country where capital punishment has become naturalized, particularly against ethnic and religious minorities. Since its inception, the Islamic Republic has made words such as “human rights” “ democracy” and “freedom” a crime.

Like before, the whereabouts of the prisoners remain unknown nor does anyone know what unfounded charges are being concocted against them, a familiar pattern is bound to happen unless a concerted global action is taken. In the middle of new arrests, several Kurdish women “including Asrin Mohammadi, Darya Talabani, and Azima Naseri, have been transferred to al-Mahdi detention center” According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).

Special Rapporteurs on Iran have repeatedly and systematically documented and reported lack of legal protections and pervasive discriminations in the Islamic Republic, particularly “against minorities and women…for vulnerable groups, including children.” This is the same crude oppressive measures that illegalize any defense of human rights in the name of a religious regime and national interests with an impunity that has found a new scope and scale.

Human rights lawyers such as Nasrin Sotoudeh and Amirsalar Davoudi, like all human rights activists are the victims of the ruthless security apparatus in defiance of all international human rights. The only thing that the Islamic Republic possesses and offers to everyone is its dreaded prisons, so horrific are these prisons that Sahar Khodayari, who had dressed as a man to watch a soccer game, set herself on fire to avoid such dungeons.

Zahra Mohammadi is still paying a high price in the Islamic Republic’s torture rooms: lengthy imprisonment for just teaching Kurdish. Thousands of names and memories have remained and cry out from the walls of these prisons.

Dear Mr. Rahman, as you had aptly predicted the hanging of Javid Dehghan, a member of the Baloch minority, is a continuing pattern of summary arrests and executions if prompt action is not taken. As you know no government glorifies the death penalty or impose it on anyone unless as you have said it is for a “most serious crime” should they have it at all; as a result , the very lives of those who have been recently arrested are in grave danger.

For these reasons, we are deeply concerned and hereby demand that the detainees who are under ubiquitous threat of torture, be set free from the dreaded prisons immediately and unconditionally. Furthermore, an independent UN led investigation should be conducted to halt the ongoing arbitrary arrests and summary executions in Iran. The international community should force the Islamic Republic to comply with international human rights standards rather than allowing it to continue its repressive policies and flagrant violations of human rights with greater impunity.

Cordially

Dr. Amir Sharifi
Co-Director of the Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group

Dr Amir Sharifi, Co-Director of the Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group ( KHRAG), Los Angeles.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.