Iranian intelligence agents interrogated the brother and father of a Kurd human rights activist, threatening them. According to the Hengaw human rights group, intelligence agents in Ravansar, western Iran summoned and interrogated Soleiman and Omran Yarahmadi, father and brother of Arsalan Yarahmadi, the editor in chief of the Hengaw website.
The report said the two men were interrogated for hours on August 8. During the interrogation, the Kermanshah Intelligence Agency forced Omran Yarahmadi to call his brother Arsalan who is also a member of Hengaw’s Managing Board.
According to Arsalan, agents told him over the phone that Musa Babakhani, a leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) who was recently assassinated in a hotel in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, was killed in an “honor” killing. The agents said that his assassination had nothing to do with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
پدرم و برادر کوچکم امروز توسط حفاظت کل اداره اطلاعات استان کرمانشاه احضار و به مدت چند ساعت مورد بازجویی قرار گرفته و از آنها خواستهاند یا من از فعالیت رسانهای دست بکشم و یا کشته خواهد شد.
— Arsalan Yarahamadi (@AYarahamadi) August 8, 2021
“They told me that I must post a report in Hengaw and say Musa was murdered for raping three women in Erbil and that he was killed by the family members of the three women,” Arsalan Yarahmadi said adding that he immediately hung up the phone.
After he hung up, intelligence agents forced his father and younger brother to write an “ultimatum”.
In the letter, the two men have been forced to commit themselves to convince Arsalan Yarahmadi to stop his human rights activities or immediately cease the activities of Hengaw. If they did not, the agents said, Arsalan would be killed. They were also forced to stamp their fingerprints on the letter.
According to Hengaw, many of their members have been threatened by the regime’s security forces both inside and outside of Iran in the past few years.
The KDP-I, an Iranian Kurdish opposition group said in a statement that Musa Babakhani, a central committee member, was kidnapped and tortured on Thursday before being killed by “two terrorists” affiliated with the Iranian regime. His body was found on Saturday.
The Iranian regime has a record of threatening, imprisoning, torturing, and even killing human rights activists and journalists.
In late July, the two sisters of an Iranian journalist and activist in Norway were summoned by Oshnavieh Intelligence in northwestern Iran, where they were interrogated and tortured for eight hours. The intelligence agents demanded the sisters ask their brother to stop his activities.
According to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) annual report, Iran has been one of the world’s most repressive countries for journalists for the past 40 years.
Source » irannewswire