Continued detention and lack of news on Habibollah Latifi

P2E, The mass arrest of the Latifi family in the final hours of the previous night has given rise to many concerns. The motives of the security authorities and the number of those arrested are not yet known. It is unclear who else was arrested besides the family of the student on death row.

There is also unconfirmed news regarding the detention of some of the activists in the city of Sanandaj. These incidents have raised many questions with respect to the condition of Habibollah Latifi.

The Global Campaign to Save Habibollah Latifi strongly condemns the extra-judicial arrest of Habibollah Latifi’s family and believes that the security officials are contributing to the inflammation of the tense situation in Kurdistan by arresting Habibollah Latifi’s family and mounting the pressure on activists in Sanandaj.

The stay of execution for Mr. Latifi (which took place yesterday, December 26th) was a positive step and helped return relative peace and normalcy to Kurdistan. However, the mass arrest of the family of this Kurdish student has caused many concerns among the public.

The Global Campaign to Save Habibollah Latifi asks the security officials to immediately release the family of Habibollah Latifi and help calm public opinion and the people of Sanandaj and Kurdistan.

The family of Habibollah Latifi has not committed any crime and has only tried to save his life through legal and peaceful means. Insistence on holding the family in prison will certainly result in widespread protests. The judicial and security officials, in addition to releasing all the detainees, have to consider the request of Mr. Latifi’s lawyer for clemency in the case.

Habibollah Latifi is a Kurdish student on death row who was deprived of the right to fair due process in various stages of interrogation, investigation, and trial.

According to the family of Habibollah Latifi, the only evidence the judge used to find him guilty of the charges was the confessions he had made under torture and coercion while being detained in the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre. Habibollah Latifi retracted all his confessions in his trial and stated that his [self-incriminating] admissions were extracted under duress and he does not accept any of the charges.

The Global Campaign to Save Habibollah Latifi calls on all international institutions and opponents of the death penalty to try to commute the death sentence of Habibollah Latifi with special care and ask for the immediate release of the family of this Kurdish prisoner.