Three Ahvazi Activists Held Under Ambiguous Conditions

Since the arrests of several Khuzestan Province civil activists in Ahvaz in April, no information has been available on the conditions of Adel Seymari, Majid Bavi, and Mohammad Jaberi, a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

According to the source, security forces arrested Adel Seymari and Majid Bavi, two Ahvaz Arab activists, on April 21, and transferred them to the Intelligence Office Detention Center after beating them. Mohammad Jaberi was arrested on April 23 in Zargan area of Ahvaz. Three months after his arrest, there is no information on his conditions. The Campaign has been unable to independently obtain additional information about these individuals’ charges, case details, and detention conditions.

The source told the Campaign that the families’ repeated visits to judicial authorities and police offices have been futile, but that in one of those visits, they were insulted and warned that the investigation and interrogations will continue and that they must keep this subject out of the media.

In recent months, authorities have summoned and arrested dozens of Arab activists in Hamidieh, Fallahieh (Shadegan), and Khalaf Abad. The crackdown and arrests peaked in April, on the threshold of the eighth anniversary of the April 15, 2005, unrest. The source told the Campaign that the heightened arrests aimed to “intimidate the people of the region and to prevent any type of gathering or protest.”

The source, a human rights activist, reported about the alarming conditions of the five Arab prisoners on death row: Jaber Alboshookeh, Mokhtar Alboshookeh, Hadi Rashedi, Hashem Shabani Nejad, and Mohammad Ali Amouri Nejad. The five prisoners from Khalifeh (Ramshir) may be executed at any moment. “Two weeks ago, Ali Chibshat, Salman Chayan, and Seyed Yasin Mousavi, three prisoners detained inside the Ahvaz Intelligence Office, embarked on a hunger strike to protest the pressure and severe torture, and they are presently in very bad physical conditions,” said the source.

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran