MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : THIS WEEKS KURDIST AN-IRAN REPORT

• 15 April 2020 – The total number of coronavirus deaths in Iran’s Kurdish region exceeded 500 last week. Concurrently, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported seven of the 100+ prisoners infected with the virus in the Central Prison of Urmia died, while the virus continues to rampage through several other Iranian prisons. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime continued its crackdown on journalists documenting its response to the coronavirus pandemic and arrested a prominent social media reporter named Shahram Safari in Sarpol-e Zahab last week. Safari, whose posts are widely followed in Iranian Kurdistan, was released on bail on Sunday. Likewise, the Kurdistan Human Rights Association (KMMK) reported a journalist named Amir Babie received a two-month sentence in Kermanshah. In Marivan, the Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced a Kuridsh activist, Woria Da’alangiz, to four months in prison for eroding “public discipline.” Da’alangiz was previously jailed for celebrating Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum on September 25, 2017.
• The Iranian regime executed the Kurdish political prisoner Mustafa Sailimi, who was previously a member of the Democratic Union of Kurdistan-Iran (KDPI), on Saturday, sparking anger throughout Iran’s Kurdish region. Sailimi and several other inmates had previously escaped from a prison in Saqqez, and several human rights organizations accused the public security forces (Asayesh) in the Iraqi Kurdistan town of Penjwen of handing Salami to the Iranian regime. Both the local Asayesh and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) denied these allegations, and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is currently investigating the incident.
• Iranian border guards ambushed a group of border porters known as (Kolbars) near Mako city on Monday, killing one and wounding two. Also, on Monday, Iranian authorities wounded a Kolbar near Chaldiran.

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