Lebanese security forces arrest two Ahwazi refugees, fears they will be extradited to Iran

Lebanese security forces have arrested two Ahwazi refugees in Beirut prior to their departure to the US after they obtained asylum through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the registered number 09-09C0055LE.

The two refugees are sisters Maryam and Nahayat Afri.

The Afri sisters have lived in Lebanon for over a decade and were recently granted asylum in the US.

Maryam and Nahayat were set to leave Lebanon for the US and even had plane tickets booked.

Friends and relatives of the Afri sisters told the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) that the Lebanese security forces stormed their house over a week ago and took them to an unknown destination.

Nothing is known about their fate until this moment, they added.

Neighbours of Maryam and Nahayat confirmed that the Lebanese general security stormed the sisters’ home and arrested them despite the fact that they were under the protection of the UNHCR in Beirut.

AHRO strongly condemns the arrest of Maryam and Nahayat Afri and calls on the Lebanese authorities to immediately intervene to release and allow them to safely leave to the US where they have been granted asylum.

AHRO also holds the Lebanese authorities responsible for the safety of Maryam and Nahayat Afri, who face the danger of being extradited to Iran under pressure from certain parties.

AHRO also calls on the UNHCR and the US government to intervene to release the Afri sisters and ensure they arrive safely to the US.

Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO)
25 January 2020

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Last Updated: 26 January 2020

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Commander in Ahwaz ranked on the US sanction list for the Maashur (Mahshar) massacre

Ahwaz Human Rights Organization welcomes the United States' inclusion of the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Ahwaz region, (province of Khuzestan), Hassan Shahwarpour, on its sanctions list for his involvement in human rights violations and the commission of the November 2019 massacre in Maashur (Mahshar)

Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, said at a press conference on Friday that Shahwarpour was put on a list of sanctions related to visas because he had "committed gross human rights violations against demonstrators."

He added that Shahwarpour supervised a massacre of 148 unarmed citizens in the Maashur area last November.

Iran had acknowledged the occurrence of the massacre of Maashur when the Special Security Forces and the Revolutionary Guards stormed the town of Al-Jarahi and other towns of Maashur, such as Koura and Khor Musa, and used tanks, machine guns and heavy weaponry to kill dozens of Arab citizens, including women and children.

Hook said that the US State Department based in its decision to impose sanctions on Shahwarpour on information obtained from Iranian civilian messages about the demonstrations, pointing to the fact that they received more than 88 thousand messages from social media from Iranian people about the suppression of demonstrations in Iran.

Ahwaz Human Rights Organization strongly condemns the mass killing that took place against the demonstrators in Maashur and stresses that the excessive violence committed against the Ahwazi demonstrators amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The organization calls on international human rights bodies to condemn these massacres and the need for the international community and the Human Rights Council to take steps towards sending a truth commission and bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.

Ahwaz Human Rights Organization
January 17, 2020

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Last Updated: 18 January 2020