Fatemeh Davand, a detainee from the November 2019 protests: 'My child has no connection to my activities'

Fatemeh Davand, one of the detainees from the November 2019 protests, says her son, Arya Yousefi, is detained and tortured due to her activities with the intelligence department in Makoo. On Saturday, August 27, she stated that her son has no connection to her activities and released a video on social media saying, 'In no part of the world, according to religious and ethical laws, is a child tried in place of their mother.' This former political prisoner emphasized that she alone is responsible for her activities and called for the unconditional release of Mr. Yousefi. Arya Yousefi, 18 years old and from Boukan, was arrested in Iran after being rejected at the border by Turkish police and transferred to the intelligence department in Makoo. Fatemeh Davand was arrested during the November 2019 protests and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. She was granted conditional release in November 2021 after serving one-third of her sentence and was freed from Urmia Central Prison. She was also one of the witnesses at the international court regarding the November protests, who left Iran for Turkey in winter 2021 due to continuous pressure from the Islamic Republic's security agencies, but was arrested by Turkish police a few months later and faced deportation back to Iran. The People's International Court for November was held to address the 'crimes' of the Iranian government during November 2019 in collaboration with three organizations: 'Human Rights Iran', 'Justice for Iran', and 'Together Against Execution' in London. Since the holding of the November courts, intelligence ministry agents have subjected several witnesses and their families to harassment, including arbitrary arrests, legal prosecution on vague national security charges, phone threats, summons for coercive interrogations, and raids on their homes and workplaces. In this context, 15 human rights organizations condemned the harassment of witnesses of the November international court and their families by Iranian officials in a statement released on April 7, 2022. These human rights organizations also reiterated their call to the UN Human Rights Council to establish a research and accountability mechanism regarding Iran to collect, analyze, and preserve evidence related to the crimes committed and facilitate fair criminal proceedings in the future.