Kermanshah Cultural Figures Remain In Prison

One month after the the arrests of eight literary and cultural figures in Gilan Gharb city in Kermanshah Province, three of the detainees, Jamal Khani, Sina Bijanpour, and Maryam Amini, were transferred from the Kermanshah Intelligence Office Detention Center to the Quarantine Wards of Kermanshah’s Dizelabad and Women’s Prisons. Their charges and other legal details about the arrests remain unknown. Families of the detainees are under pressure from security and judicial organizations not to give out any interviews or information about their imprisoned kin’s conditions.

A local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the other detainees, Sajjad Jahanfard, Farhad Vakilinia, Ezzedin Heydari, Maziar Mohammadi, and Naim Jafari remain in solitary cells inside the Intelligence Office Detention Center in Kermanshah, under interrogation.

In addition to the eight literary figures, three environmental activists, Iraj Ghaderi, Behrouz Darvand, and Sharif Bajoor, were arrested in August in Marivan in Kurdistan Province. Furthermore, three student activists, Soleiman Vahidinia, Ali Naderi, and Nasser Aman, were arrested in Sardasht in Western Azerbaijan Province. There have also been other arrests of Kurdish activists in different cities in Kurdistan Province.

The widespread arrests of the recent month have taken place simultaneously with the Revolutionary Guard operations in the northwest region of the country against armed Kurdish opposition forces inside Iraqi Kurdistan for the past two months. The attacks target members of the PJAK party.

According to the local source, the attacks have led to many civilian and military personnel casualties.

Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran