Iran arrests 180 Kurdish activists

Bestun Kakayi – BasNews (Iran): 20.11-2013 –  Over the last two months 180 Kurds have been arrested in Iranian Kurdistan.  This week, two Kurdish activists were arrested by Iranian intelligence forces in Kamyaran, after they crossed the border from the Kurdistan Region into Iranian Kurdistan.

A source has told BasNews that two Kurdish activists, Mihrdad Saburi and Afshin Nadimi, from Kurdish cities Sina and Kamyaran, disappeared 10 days ago. It was recently announced that they were arrested on Nov. 17. Two siblings are also said to have mysteriously disappeared from Bokan city. There has been no information regarding the whereabouts of 28-year-old Afsana Bayazidi and her 25-year-old brother Shaho. Security agencies in that area have yet to release a statement regarding the disappearances.

This week, an Iranian court sentenced Shahin Bayazidi, a Kurdish activist and former member of Bokan municipality council, to two years in jail.The execution of Kurdish activists in Iran is also steadily increasing, with 11 Kurds executed over the past two years. 60 Kurdish youth activists, poets and intellectuals are currently sentenced to death. Iran is often criticized by human rights organizations for its poor human rights record. According to an Amnesty International report, it is only second behind China in number of citizen executions. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) has said that the high number of executions of Kurds and the lack of freedom of expression and religion are just some of the key issues faced by Iran’s Kurdish population.

http://www.basnews.net/en/News/Details/Iran-arrests-180-Kurdish-activists/6223