ABC blog

Iranian police intelligence agents have arrested nine Kurdish activists in the city of Marivan and taken them to a police station, an informed source tells Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.  Arresting officers did not present warrants and have charged the activists – Aram Fathi, Moslem Bahrami, Suran Daneshvar, Aram Emani, Ehsan Partovi, Ahmad Tabireh, Mohammad Ezkat, Delir Roshan, and Nourshirvan Khoshnazar – with “disturbing the public order and sowing anxiety in the public’s minds.”

According to another report, Kurdish labor activists Khaled Hosseini, Mozzafar Salehnia, and Mokhtar Zare’i were arrested in their homes this morning (September 12) and transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison.

The arrests are likely related to the general strike observed today in Iran’s Kurdish-majority areas, organized in protest of the September 8 execution of Kurdish political prisoners Loghman Moradi, Zaniar Moradi, and Hossein Ramin Panahi.

Against the backdrop of the protests, video circulated on social media shows Iranian security agents spray-painting the closed doors of businesses participating in the strike. There is a fear that such businesses are being marked for further targeted action by authorities.

Articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, human rights instruments to which Iran is bound, recognize freedom of expression and the right to form peaceful assemblies.