Threats Against Families of Detainees in Several Cities of Ardabil and East and West Azerbaijan Provinces

Reports indicate that families of detainees from recent months in Tabriz and several other cities in East and West Azerbaijan and Ardabil provinces are being threatened and subjected to legal actions by the security apparatus of the Islamic Republic. Security agents have summoned these families and requested that they refrain from pursuing the release of their detained relatives. Several civil activists in these provinces have been arrested by government agents in the past two months. According to received reports, among the detainees are Davood Shiri, Araz Ebrahimnejad, Javad Soodbar, Mohammad Reza Moayed, Mehrdad Ghaderi, Babak Rahmati, Hossein Azadi, Ebrahim Avazadeh, Saber Hosseinzadeh, and Nasser Razmjou, who have been transferred to the Intelligence Department of Tabriz. Security and judicial officials of the Islamic Republic have not provided information regarding the charges and status of the detainees. Yashar Hakkakpour, director of the Azerbaijani Political Prisoners Defense Association in Iran, told Voice of America that 'security officials are trying to create scenarios through the mass arrest of these activists and by subjecting them to prolonged solitary confinement and torture, aiming to convict them on security charges for long prison terms.' He points out that 'even the pursuit by the families of these activists has led to the arrest of some of them,' and states: 'What is clear is that the detainees have merely sought peaceful demands for ethnic equality and are advocating for the rights of Azerbaijanis in Iran.' However, according to Yashar Hakkakpour, this is something that 'the Islamic Republic cannot tolerate and criminalizes any demand for equality, and Azerbaijanis are not exempt from this issue.' The extension of Farhad Hosseini's detention; the status of seven detainees in Tabriz remains unclear. Dozens of protesters against the drying of Lake Urmia have been arrested in several cities. A civil activist has been sentenced to 16 years in prison and has summarized two books about Azerbaijan. The appellate court ruling in East Azerbaijan for Mokhtar Ebrahimi, a civil activist: one year in prison.