Ahwazi refugee Abdolkhezer Dorghi with his seven children at risk of deportation from Turkey to Iran

Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO) expresses its deep concern over the imminent refoulement of Mr. Abdolkhazar Doraghi, along with his seven children, to Iran after the Government of Turkey informed him three days ago that he along with his family will be extradited to Iran sometime in January 2022.

Mr. Doraghi is a well-known political activist and an opponent of the Iranian regime. He is a former political prisoner, jailed in 2005 for his participation in the April 15, 2005, the Ahwazi-Arab uprising (Intifada) against the ethnic-cleansing, land expropriation and ethnic persecution of the Ahwazi Arab minority by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Mr. Doraghi had to flee Iran and seek haven in Kuwait in 2009. In 2014, the Iranian government attempted to pressure the Kuwaitis to forcefully return him to Iran. He escaped before his arrest and sought asylum under the protection of the UNHCR in Ankara, Turkey.

Mr. Doraghi was accepted as a political refugee (UNHCR Refugee Certificate 385-15C02931) in September 2014. Since then, he has lived in Turkey under UNHCER auspices and protection from forcible return to Iran. He was placed on the list for resettlement to a third country.

However, after five years of waiting to be relocated, he was notified by UNHCR on Monday 5, May 2019 that his case, along with other political refugees is now processed by the host country, Turkey.

Mr. Doraghi is a long-time member of the Democratic Solidarity Party of al-Ahwaz. (DSPA), an anti-regime political organization with presence in Iran and abroad. DSPA believes in the overthrow of the Islamic Republic through non-violent means and transition to a parliamentary democracy in a federal system. Nonetheless, DSPA has been considered a secessionist and a separatist organization and banned by the Iranian regime. Many of its members were killed by the Iranian regime.

The secessionist charge will certainly lead to a death sentence for Mr. Doraghi should he be returned to Iran under any circumstances. Mr. Doraghi survived several threats to his life by Iranian security agents while living in Kuwait. His life is in imminent danger in Turkey.

We respectfully ask Mr. Filippo Grandi, high commissioner for UNHCR, Madam Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Mr. Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights Situation in Iran, to take urgent action to stop the forcible return to Iran. We also urge that he and his family be relocated to a third country.

We urge people around the world to write to Mr. Filippo Grandi, UNHCR headquarters in Geneva: https://www.unrefugees.org/contact-us/general/ and to: UNHCR,
Turkey: Mr. Enis Behic Koryurek: Tiflis Cad. 552. Sok. No:3, Sancak Mah. Cankaya Ankara,
Yusef KEPEN. Goc idaresi Muduru, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Tel: 903124097300 Fax: 903124472173

AHRO is a US-registered human rights advocacy non-governmental organization that works in support of minorities and women in Iran.

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Last Updated: 30 December 2021

Ahwazi Political Prisoners Severely Beaten in Sheiban prison

On April 29th, the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO) received a report about the severe beating of a group of Ahwazi Arab political prisoners by prison guards in Ahwaz’s Sheiban Prison.

The human rights organization quoted its sources stating that 3 Ahwazi Arab political prisoners Mohammad Ali Amouri, Mukhtar Alboshokeh and Qassem Sanjari had been severely beaten on Thursday, April 29th , adding: "these political prisoners were harassed by two other prisoners identified as Hossein Porkar ( convicted with embezzlement ), Adnan Zabieh and other convicted criminals. The situation escalated and the prison guards attacked the 3 political prisoners   resulting in bloody injuries.

Following the beating the 3 political prisoners were sent to solitary confinement without receiving any treatment. In January 2019, the same 3 individuals along with other political prisoners including: Abdulzahra Heleichi,Yahya Naseri, Nazem Bereihi, Abdulimam Zayeri and Jaber Alboshokeh underwent a hunger strike as a sign of protest for not separating political prisoners from dangerous convicted prisoners. Prison officials responded with torture, beating and verbal abuse.

Mr.Amouri and Albushoka are Arab activists who were members of the Al-Hawar (Dialogue) cultural Institute. They were sentenced to execution by the Revolutionary Court on false security charges, but later their sentence was reduced to  life imprisonment.

Sanjari is also an Arab political activist who has been sentenced to prison. Authorities in Ahwaz prisons, especially Sheiban Prison, consistently keep prisoners with dangerous criminals in the same ward as political prisoners in order to harass Arab political prisoners.

The Ahwaz Human Rights Organization, refers to the need to observe the "separation of prisoners on the basis of crime" and calls on international organizations and the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran to condemn the systematic harassment of political prisoners in Iran and to oblige the relevant authorities of the Islamic Republic to respect the rights of prisoners.

Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO)

April 30th 2021

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Last Updated: 27 December 2021