Iran:
Arrest Sweeps Target Arab Minority(New York) – Iranian security forces
arrested more than 65 Arab residents during security sweeps in Iran’s
Arab-majority Khuzestan province since late 2011 according to local
activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The Iranian government should
immediately charge or release those arrested, Human Rights Watch said.
Authorities should also investigate reports by local activists that two
detainees have died in Intelligence Ministry detention facilities in the
past week.
Reports
by local activists about security sweeps in the towns of Hamidiyeh,
Shush, and Ahvaz indicate that authorities carried out at least some of
the arrests in response to anti-government slogans and graffiti
spray-painted on public property expressing sympathy for the Arab Spring
and calling for a boycott of Iran’s parliamentary elections, scheduled
for March 2, 2012. Human Rights Watch received information that Mohammad
Kaabi, 34, and Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan, 19, died in detention
facilities run by local intelligence officials in Shush and Ahvaz
respectively, apparently as a result of torture. The local activists say
that most of those arrested are being held in incommunicado detention.
“There
has been a blackout inside Iran on this latest round of arrests
targeting Arab protesters and activists,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle
East director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should immediately
divulge the reasons for the arrests, give detainees access to family
members and lawyers, bring all detainees promptly before a judge, and
hold anyone responsible for torture to account.”
Human
Rights Watch expressed concern for those in custody. Based on past
government actions some of those arrested could be at imminent risk of
execution if they are convicted by revolutionary courts of national
security crimes including terrorism or espionage, or face prosecution on
such charges. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any charges that have
been brought in these cases.
According
to several Iranian Arab rights groups, security forces have since
November 2011 arrested at least 18 Arab men in Hamidiyeh, 25 kilometers
west of Ahvaz, the provincial capital. The first arrest, on November 28,
was of the prominent activist Hasan Manabi, an elementary school
principal, and his brother Ghabel. A close friend of Hasan Manabi told
Human Rights Watch that security and intelligence forces had arrested
him numerous times since 2005. He said that Manabi, who had told the
friend about torture and ill-treatment at the hands of intelligence
officials following earlier arrests, had decided in late 2010 to seek
asylum in Turkey.
Manabi’s
friend told Human Rights Watch that the Intelligence Ministry summoned
and detained Manabi’s wife for several days to pressure him to return to
Iran. Manabi returned in September 2011 and introduced himself to
intelligence officials in Ahvaz, who interrogated him, then released him
after several hours. But on November 28 intelligence agents raided
Manabi’s home and arrested him and his brother Ghabel. The authorities
have since accused Hasan Manabi of spying for the United States and the
United Kingdom, in addition to having ties with Arab opposition groups
operating in Khuzestan province.
A
local Khuzestan activist told Human Rights Watch that the latest round
of arrests in Hamidiyeh began when security forces arrested nine Iranian
Arabs on January 10 and four more on January 26 and 30. Most are
between ages 20 and 28, and some had previously been detained for
participating in demonstrations demanding more rights for Iran’s ethnic
Arab minority. At least one has been released on bail, the local
activist said, and several others have since been arrested.
Authorities
have also arrested at least 27 people in Shush, 115 kilometers
northwest of Ahvaz, in recent weeks. A local activist there said that
security forces, including plainclothes members of the Intelligence
Ministry, initiated the arrests in response to anti-government slogans
and graffiti spray-painted on public property expressing sympathy for
the Arab Spring and calling for a boycott of Iran’s parliamentary
elections, scheduled for March 2. The activist said that security forces
set up checkpoints throughout Shush. After they arrested Jasim Kaabi,
his daughter Khadijeh, and his son Mohammad in their home on January 21,
he said “people became angry and poured into the streets.” In response,
security forces arrested at least 24 men, most of them in their 20s, on
January 25 and 26. The arrests took place in Ahmadabad, Khazireh,
Davar, and several villages outside of Shush.
“For
about four days [from January 25] Shush was effectively under martial
law, which has since been lifted,” the activist said. “But the city is
still under a heavy security presence.”
The
local activist told Human Rights Watch that Mohammad Kaabi, who was
arrested in Shush on January 21, died in custody at a local Intelligence
Ministry detention facility. The local activist confirmed reports from
other activists that on February 2 authorities from the Shush
Intelligence Ministry office contacted Kaabi’s family and informed them
that he had died. The official reportedly told the family that
authorities had already buried Kaabi’s remains and there was no need for
funeral services. They warned the family not to conduct a public
mourning service for their son.
Prior
to news of Kaabi’s death, local activists told Human Rights Watch that
19-year-old Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan had allegedly died after being
tortured on January 30 in an Intelligence Ministry detention facility in
Ahvaz. A source close to Derafshan’s family told Human Rights Watch
that security forces arrested Derafshan on January 26 for unknown
reasons.
On
January 30, agents from Ahvaz’s Intelligence Ministry called
Derafshan’s father and told them to come pick up him up, the source
said. When his father arrived at the detention facility, he caught a
glimpse of a body inside the ambulance parked there and asked if it was
his son, but the authorities denied it. He followed the ambulance to
Golestan hospital and discovered that the body in the ambulance was his
son’s. The source told Human Rights Watch that Derafshan’s family saw
signs of torture on his body, including bruises on his face, neck,
waist, and ribs. The authorities claim that Derafshan died of natural
causes.
The source told Human Rights Watch that authorities have so far refused to return Derafshan’s body to his family.
Local
activists also told Human Rights Watch that intelligence agents have
arrested at least 11 Arab men in and around Ahvaz since February 3.
Security forces arrested another 10 Arab men, all of whom are members of
the Sunni sect, on January 17, activists said. One of them told Human
Rights Watch that security forces, many of them plainclothes agents, are
present throughout Ahvaz and the situation there is very tense.
Human
Rights Watch has received the names of many of those arrested or
killed, but has not been able to verify the circumstances of each arrest
due to severe government restrictions on independent monitoring and
reporting in the province. Human Rights Watch previously called on
Iranian authorities to allow independent international media and human
rights organizations access to investigate allegations of serious rights
violations in the province.
“Security
operations in Khuzestan province since protests there last April have
resulted in the largest number of deaths and injuries since the
crackdown that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election,” Stork
said. “With the province under an information blackout and the history
of secret convictions and executions, we have reason to be very worried
about the people the authorities have been snatching up and carrying off
there.”
BackgroundKhuzestan
province, where much of Iran’s oil and gas reserves are located, has a
large ethnic Arab population believed to number more than 2 million,
possibly a majority of residents. Despite Khuzestan’s natural resource
wealth, ethnic Arabs have long complained about the lack of
socioeconomic development in the region. They also allege that the
Iranian government has systematically discriminated against them,
particularly in employment, housing, and civil and political rights.
The
arrests in Hamidiyeh, Shush, and Ahvaz are the latest in an intense
government security and media campaign over several years targeting
Khuzestan Arab residents and activists. The government routinely alleges
that Arab rights activists and protesters engage in terrorism and
espionage, or are tied to armed Arab separatist groups. On December 13,
2011, Press TV, a government English-language station, aired a
documentary featuring three Arab men who confessed before the cameras
that they had carried out terrorist activities. The program alleged that
the men – Hadi Rashedi, Hashem Shaabani, and Taha Heidarian – were part
of a group called ‘Khalq-e Arab,’ supported by US and UK interests and
foreign-based Iranian Arabs who fronted as human rights activists.
A
source who knows both Rashedi and Shaabani told Human Rights Watch that
the two men are among more than 10 others from the town of Khalafabad,
located about 120 kilometers southeast of Ahvaz, who have been arrested
and detained by authorities since January 2011. He said he believes the
men were forced to confess to these crimes after being subjected to
physical and psychological torture.
In
April 2011, Human Rights Watch documented the use of live ammunition by
security forces against protesters in cities throughout Khuzestan
province, killing dozens and wounding many more. No Iranian official has
been held to account for these killings.
Authorities
also arrested several hundred demonstrators and rights activists, some
of whom are still in detention, and executed at least seven Arab men and
a 16-year-old boy in Ahvaz’s Karun prison between May 4 and May 7,
Iranian Arab rights groups reported. Local rights activists have told
Human Rights Watch that at least some of those executed had been
arrested only weeks before, during the April protests. Activists say
that at least four others died in custody between March and May. The
authorities should open independent and transparent investigations into
all alleged killings, Human Rights Watch said.
The
April 2011 protests were held to mark the sixth anniversary of 2005
protests in Khuzestan, in which security forces opened fire to disperse
demonstrators in Ahvaz and other cities and towns, killing at least 50
protesters and detaining hundreds. The 2005 crackdown led to a cycle of
violence throughout Khuzestan province, including several bomb attacks
in June and October 2005 and January 2006 that killed 12 people. In
response, the government imprisoned numerous activists it claimed were
Arab separatists responsible for terrorist attacks against civilians and
sentenced more than a dozen people to death on terrorism-related
charges. Since 2006, authorities have executed at least 19 Iranians of
Arab origin.
Names of People Reported Arrested in Khuzestan Province Since November 2011 (provided by local activists)*
Shush:
Qasem Badavi, Jaajaa Chenani, Aadel Dabbat, Ahmad Dabbat, Ashur Dabbat,
Faisal Dabbat, Kazem Dabbat, Ebrahim Heidari, Hamid Kaabi, Jaafar
Kaabi, Jasem Kaabi, Karim Kaabi, Khadijeh Kaabi (female), Mohammad Kaabi
(died in detention), Sajjad Kaabi, Ali Kenani, Abbas Khasraji, Mehdi
Khasraji, Moslem Mazraavi, Morteza Mousavi, Hasan Navaseri, Mehdi
Navaseri, Salar Obeidavi, Amir Sorkhi, Adnan Zoqeibi, Ahmad Zoqeibi,
Osman Zoqeibi
Hamidiyeh:
Hasan Abiat, Jalil Abiat, Jamal Abiat, Aadel Cheldavi, Adnan Cheldavi,
Karim Doheimi, Ali Heidari, Mohammad Adnan Helfi, Ghabel Manabi
(arrested November 2011), Hadi Manabi, Hasan Manabi (arrested November
2011), Seyed Faraj Mousavi (released on bail), Heidar Obeidavi, Khaled
Obeidavi, Ayoub Saedi, Emad Saedi, Abbas Samer, Eidan Shakhi
Ahvaz
(and vicinity): Ahmad Afravi (Sunni), Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan (died
in detention), Majid Bavi (Sunni), Abdolvahid Beit Sayyah (Sunni),
Valid Hamadi, Qazi Handali Farhani (Sunni), Jamal Hazbavi (Sunni), Tofiq
Heidari, Hamid Khanfari Batrani (Sunni), Hossein Khazraji (Sunni), Said
Khazraji (Sunni), Jasem Marvani, Taher Moaviyeh, Mohammad Naami, Seyed
Ahmad Nazari (Sunni), Aadel Saedi, Hossein Savari, Ali Sayyahi, Ali
Sharifi, Sadoun Silavi, Khalaf Zobeidi (Sunni)
*This
list is not exhaustive and Human Rights Watch could not independently
verify whether the individuals listed remain in detention.
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