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Ahwazi people long and short terms disappearance by Iranian intelligence service

The Iranian intelligence service crackdown and mass arbitrary raids and arrests against Ahwazi people led to the their long and short term disappearance and by complete ignorance the disappeared families’ suffering.

Almost all the disappeared Ahwazi people either being kidnapped while they are at home or summoned to the intelligence department under pretext of asking some question where after person refers, leading to the disappearance of related person in Al-Ahwaz.

The majority of disappeared people are denied for appointing lawyer that could defend them in the revolutionary courts and people are been judged and sentenced to death or long term imprisonment without getting legal assistance.

Although the Article 2 of International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance describes the “enforced disappearance” is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.

Following are the Ahwazi people that been disappeared and documented by Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights;

The involuntary and Enforced Disappearance phenomena started with abduction of the last ruler of Al-Ahwaz, that is Khaz’al bin Jabir bin Merdaw al-Ka’bi (June 1897 – April 1925).

in spring 1921, Reza Khan (Iranian Shah) made two attempts to convince Khaz’al to meet him in Tehran to discuss his position in the new government. However, Khaz’al was suspicious of Reza Khan’s motives and refused to go there himself, instead stating that he would send an emissary.

A few weeks later in April, Reza Khan ordered one of his commanders, who had a friendly relationship with Khaz’al, to meet Khaz’al, ostensibly to convince him to journey to Tehran. The commander, General Fazlollah Zahedi, accompanied by several government officials, met with Khaz’al and spent an evening with him on board his yacht, anchored in the Shatt al-Arab river by his palace in the village of Falahieyh near the city of Mohammareh.

Later that evening a gunboat, sent by Reza Khan, stealthily made its way next to the yacht, which was then immediately boarded by fifty Persian troops. The soldiers arrested Khaz’al and kidnapped him by motorboat down the river to Mohammareh, where a car was waiting to take him to the military base in Ahwaz. From there he was taken to Dezful, and then to the city of Khorramabad in Lorestan, and then eventually to Tehran.

Khaz’al spent the rest of his life under virtual house arrest, unable to travel beyond Tehran’s city limits.

He died in May 1936 while alone in his house, as earlier in the day his servants had been taken to court by the police. It is said that he did not die of natural causes, but that he was murdered by one of the guards stationed outside his house under direct orders from Reza Shah.

The second example of Ahwazi Enforced Disappearance was Shaikh Mohammad Taher Khaghani.

Shaikh Mohammad Taher Khaghani is the great religious reference (Marjaa) in Al-Ahwaz who had risen against the new rulers of Iran after the revolution in 1979. He was one of the strongest opponents of the Pahlavi regime. He was kidnapped during the Reza Khan era from Muhammara to Tehran then appear in a military court on charges of opposing the regime and its illegitimacy.

Shaikh Mohammad Taher Khaghani spent seven years under the most oppressive circumstances in the city of Qom under house arrest until he reached the point that the doctors refrained from treating him for fear of the authorities until he died on 18th of May 1986.

Sayed Jasem Shabibi is an Ahwazi father that was abducted on Wednesday the 30th of January 1991 and there is no news about him so far up to written of this report.

Mr. Sahabibi is a father of two boys and has political activity in regards to the rights of Ahwazi Arab people that are residing in south and south-west of Iran.

Yousef Silawi, a 58 year-old retired Ahwazi Arab, and a father of two girls, is one of the victims of enforced disappearance in Iran. He was abducted from his home in Ahwaz capital in early November 2009.

At the time of Silawi’s disappearance, his wife was out of the country visiting their two daughters who had been studying in Damascus University in Syria.

For the past eight years Iranian government has refused to report his whereabouts, they do not respond to communications, even ignoring urgent calls from Amnesty International and refuse to provide his wife with travel document in order to visit her daughters who live abroad.

Silawi’s wife tried to contact all the official institutions responsible, starting from the local police station up to Ali Khamenei’s office, but did not succeed in getting any information. This led her to believe that her husband is detained in one of the secret safe houses of IRGC in Iran.

The Iranian authorities refused to reveal the fate of Ahwazi prisoner after his relatives’ chase up into the Iranian intelligence service, despite the passage of more than three years on his disappearance in Iranian prisons in Ahwaz.

the prisoners who were forcibly disappeared was the Ahwazi child Hamzeh Asakereh, 17 years old, from the Koura district of Ma’shour city south of Al-Ahwaz capital, where he was kidnapped by intelligence agents in February 2015 while he was on a street. His fate remains unknown up to written of this report.

The crime of the young man Hamzeh Asakereh, seventeen-year-old at time of disappearance, is raising the Ahwazi national flag on one of Ahwaz electricity poles in the Koura district in the city of Ma’shour.

The Ahwazi preacher “Abdallah Karamullah Ka’ab and Qasem Beit Abdullah”, from the town of Shawour north of Ahwaz capital; also are among those who disappeared forcibly after being arrested by the Iranian intelligence on 21 October of 2015.

Mr. Qasem Beit Abdullah, born in 1986, married, had two children from the villages of “Beit Derchal” and Abdullah Karamoalah Ka’ab, born in 1980, married with three children from the “Shawour” village, after two years of disappearance, suddenly the families of the two activists were informed of their children’s death sentences on 31st of August 2017 and are unaware of any legal process.

The families of Abdullah and Qasem did not see their children before the issuance of the sentence and even after August 2017 as both victims been transferred to unknown location.

Detainees Qasem and Abdullah have been accused of shooting at Qouniterh (Dezful)’s mourning board and even Qasem and Abdullah told the judge that the intelligence agency knew who are the shooters were involved in Safi Abad, Dezful shooting, and we have nothing to do with this matter.

Abdullah Karamoalah Ka’ab, one of the sentenced to death, in the court dismisses the charges that attributed to him and said to the judge: “It is true that I am a Sunni activist and the security service knows that we have nothing to do with the subject of Safi Abad, my only crime is I am a Sunni and I oppose any violence.

The enforced disappearance continues against Ahwazi Arab people where an Ahwazi preacher named as Bagher Na’ami (also known as Gholami) has been arrested on early hours (1 am Ahwaz time) of Sunday the 6th of March 2016 in Sheyban city northeast of Ahwaz capital.

Mr Bagher is in his forty of age, married and has two children, studied Sharia law in Iraq and Syria, after inspection and scattering his belonging was arrested and taken to an unknown place with a bunch of books where his family has no news yet about the place of detention.

Mr Na’ami was arrested before on August 2012 and 17th December 2013 with charges of Enmity with Shiism and link up with foreign countries, working as Taxi driver in Sheyban city.

There is no news about Mr. Na’ami since his arrest on the 6th of March 2016.

Ali Zaheeri Sari is another Ahwazi was arrested by the Iranian Minister of Intelligence along with other several Arab activists on 15th March 2017, After being held for several months, in the Iranian Intelligence Detention Centre in Ahwaz capital, accompanied by severe physical and mental torture that resulted in his nails was pull out, he was transferred to Sheyban prison with complete ignorance of informing his family about the process that exercised against him.

Ali Zaheeri Sari, born in May 1992, married, graduated from law, resident of the Koye Alawi (Althoura district), in Ahwaz capital. He is a civil and cultural activist who had a lot of activities such as holding Arabic poetry nights and of support the chains’ campaign protests against the transfer of Karoon water and the destruction of the historical works of the Ahwaz region.

The family of ‘Ali Zaheeri Sari’ refers to the Sheyban prison (also known by Ahwaz Complex) for the first time after Ali’s arrest on Wednesday, January 31, 2018, in which the prison authorities told them: Ali was transferred to the Iranian security detention centre on Sunday, January 28th, 2018. That definitely shows how the Iranian regime officials are playing with families’ emotions and feeling.

Mr. Ali was sentenced by Branch 4 of the Iranian (Ahwaz) Revolutionary Court on charges of propaganda against the Islamic Republic, and the judge of the branch issued one Billion Iranian Rials (about $40,000) in order to bail him out, but the intelligence department has prevented him from release until the issuance of the verdict.

The family of two young people from the city of Khafajia (Susangerd), after passing four years from the arrest of their member, have no information about their death or alive.

Masood Jaderi Born in 1979, married and Jamal Jaderi Born in 1989, single, both brothers from Khafajia city who were arrested by intelligence forces in 2013 and transferred to an unknown location.

Despite the family’s confidence in the arrest of these two brothers and their pursuit over the past four years, Iranian judicial and intelligence officials did not give any information about the physical and mental situation of Masood and Jamal Jaderi.

The Ahwaz intelligence office also told the family that they did not have such detainees. The rest of the judicial authorities and security centres have also told the family that they do not have such names in the list of detainees.

The family is not even aware of the charge and the reason for the arrest of their children. Only one of the IRGC commanders in a private relationship has responded to the family that “Think they are not alive.”

The family of these two brothers is extremely distressed and severely suffer from mental point in which they are still waiting for any news about their children.

Mr. Rathi Khanfari is another Ahwazi young who has suffered from enforced disappearance since 2007.

Mr. Khanfari born on 1975, single, and resident of “Kut Abdullah” neighbourhood of Ahwaz capital and working as baker for long time.

Mr. Khanfari and as routine of bakery, he needs to get up in early hours of everyday in which in one day of 2007 (month and day could not be determined) and in early hours while he was heading towards bakery and according to eye witness, a grey Peugeot car with four intelligence agents surrounded Mr. Khanfari and put him inside the car forcibly.

Mr. Khanfari had political activity and has been arrested prior to his complete disappearance. He was arrested in 2004 and imprisoned for seven months and in 2005 and exactly after Ahwazi Intifada, has was arrested again and sentenced to one-year imprisonment.

Mr. Khanfari has grown up in a political family and demanding the rights of Ahwazi Arab people through international norms and charters where Mr. Abdulghani Khanfari (Mr. Rathi’s elder brother) born on 1973, been arrested after Ahwazi intifada in 2005 and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and Mr. Jasem Khanfari (Mr. Rathi’s elder brother) born on 1968 also been arrested after Ahwazi intifada in 2005 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in Ahwazi Karoon prison.

Like other Ahwazi disappeared young, there is no news about Mr. Rathi Khanfari up to written of this news.

Mr. Sayed Wesam Mousawi also an Ahwazi young who has been kidnapped by Iranian intelligence service in early 2015. Mr. Mousawi in his 30’s of age, single, while he was teenager both parent died and he was living one his friend home. He was cultural activist and selling car gas (LPG) and from the time of arrest and after his friend continuous follow up, the intelligence service has demanded 11 billion Iranian Rials for his temporary release on late 2017.

Meanwhile an Ahwazi Sunni preacher by the name of Qassem Abiat was arrested in early days of February 2015 by Iranian authorities on charges of spreading what they called Salafi and Wahhabi beliefs in Ahwaz.

The Ahwazi preacher detained in a bus station in the city of Zahedan, the capital of predominantly Sunni province of Baluchistan in Iran, when he wanted to travel to visit his family in Ahwaz.

Sources close to the family of Qassem Abiat said that Qassem was moving between Ahwaz and Baluchistan because of his religious study at one the theological schools, which is teaching Sunni sciences regarding the Sunni interpretation of Islam in Zahedan city.

Qassem’s family are still unaware in regards his whereabouts up to written of this news.

The Iranian intelligence service has kidnapped an Ahwazi girl named as Ma’edeh Sha’bani-Nejad (Amouri) with her uncle Mahmoud Amouri as well as her aunt Mrs Mahnaz Amouri on Thursday the 25th of January 2018. since the time of kidnapping, there is no news about all the three detainees.

Ma’edeh Sha’bani-Nejad (Amouri) with 15-year-old (born in 2003), been arrested previously on Tuesday 17th of October 2017 by Iranian intelligence service. Ma’edeh is a student from Abadan city.

Mr. Mahmoud Amouri (Ma’edeh’s uncle) is in age of 35 and Mrs Mahnaz (Ma’edeh’s aunt) is in age of 32, both has been arrested where Ma’edeh where hiding herself in their home due to fear of being arrested by Iranian intelligence service.

The intelligence service could not arrest Ma’edeh, but they have arrested her from her mobile that was registered with Iranian mobile network that led to her place.

Ma’edeh was arrested before and then released by heavily financial bail after two weeks’ arrest where the intelligence service told her to stop talking in the favour of the Ahwazi Arab.

In contact by Ma’edeh’s father that applied for asylum in Austria, Mr. Shahid Sha’bani said “I have no information from my daughter and my brother and his wife since their arrest in the 25th of January 2018. I appeal to all human rights organisations to help me in putting pressure on Iranian regime to reveal the fate of my family that been arrested a few days ago. “

Khaled Sawari is another young who has been disappeared by Iranian intelligence service since November 2017. Khaled is 28 years old, married and has girl resident of “Kut Abdullah” neighbourhood of Ahwaz capital and since November 2017, his family has no news about him.

Since 2004, the Iranian government has delayed several request from the UN Working Group on Involuntary and Enforced Disappearance to visit Iran. The UN received 522 cases, but the real figure is believed to be much higher.

Report written by;

Faisal Maramazi

Executive director of Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights

06-March-2018

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