Arrest of Salar Taher Afshar, Civil Activist, in Urmia

Salar Taher Afshar, a civil activist, has been transferred to the Intelligence Department of Tabriz after being arrested by security forces in West Azerbaijan Province. The Azerbaijani Political Prisoners Defense Association (ADAP) reported, citing relatives of the activist, that Mr. Taher Afshar was arrested at his workplace on February 18. According to ADAP, three days after his arrest, his family received a notification requesting that Salar Taher Afshar report to the Criminal Enforcement Office of the 33rd District Court of Tehran to serve a previously issued 5-year sentence. It is anticipated that this civil activist's arrest was aimed at transferring him to Evin Prison to serve his 5-year prison sentence. Salar Taher Afshar has a history of multiple arrests, interrogations, and judicial convictions. He was last tried in May and June of this year in two separate cases in the East Azerbaijan Appeals Court and the 15th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran. In the first case, he was sentenced to 6 months in prison for participating in the performance of political rap music, charged with complicity in propaganda against the regime. In the second case, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced him to 5 years in prison for conspiracy to undermine national security. ADAP also reported that another Azerbaijani civil activist, Ebrahim Asmani, was sentenced to 3 months in prison and 30 lashes in Tabriz. The Azerbaijani Political Prisoners Defense Association, based on the court ruling received by the organization, stated that Judge Naqi Rezaei, head of the 118th Criminal Branch of Tabriz, described Mr. Asmani's charge as 'disturbing public order through unconventional dress and creating a commotion at the funeral of Zahra Vafai, a well-known writer from Tabriz.' Relatives of Ebrahim Asmani told ADAP that this charge arose after he wore a jacket with designs and writings of the Old Turkic alphabet at Zahra Vafai's funeral. According to them, agents of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence asked him to remove the jacket during the ceremony, but after he resisted, security forces arrested him. According to ADAP, after Ebrahim Asmani was transferred to the Intelligence Department of Tabriz, security agents subjected him to severe torture and threw him down the stairs, causing injuries to his knee, ankle, and toes. This incident occurred despite sources informing ADAP that he did not resist during his arrest, and the Ministry of Intelligence's claim of 'creating conflict and commotion' at the funeral, which the judge also endorsed, is false.