There are mounting concerns over the fates of a number of Ahwazi Arabs arrested by the Iranian security forces and tried in secret Revolutionary Courts on unknown charges.
According to reports received by the British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS), 18-year-old Fazel Haidari was arrested and tortured for 45 days in Sepidar Prison in Ahwaz, although the accusations against him are unclear. Khalil Ghate Kaabi and Saeed Rahim Sadi have each been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment or sentenced to death, according to different reports. Issa Kazim Kaabi was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, while Mrs Nabiyeh Abdul Hussein Kaabi was sentenced to five years in prison.
Nabiyeh was arrested in April after her home in Shooster (Tostar) in the Shoeibiyah valley was raided by security forces. She is sister of an opposition activist who was executed with other Ahwazi Arab activists. Khalil Ghate Kaabi, her husband and her father in law, Majid Ghate Kaabi, were also arrested at the same time. The arrests occurred after clashes between Arab residents and security forces in Shoeibiyah. The area has seen extensive land confiscation by the state for the creation of massive sugar cane plantations.
There is also alarming news that Saeed Saki (pictured), a UNHCR-mandated refugee who was illegally repatriated to Iran from Syria in May 2005, has been sentenced to have a hand and a leg amputated. He had been due to be resettled in Norway. BAFS has been following his case since he was arrested in Syria and has repeatedly warned that he is in danger of torture and execution. Another repatriated refugee Saeed Hamadi also received five years imprisonment in Tehran, hundreds of miles from his family. The UNHCR had also expressed alarm at the arrest and repatriation of Saki and other refugees, but has in recent years lost interest in the plight of refugees supposedly under its protection and largely abandoned Ahwazi Arab refugees in Syria to their fate.Labels: death penalty, human rights, refugees
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keywords: ahvaz ahwaz ahwazi arabistan khuzestan khuzistan khuzestani arab arabistan iran iranian human rights security oil news ahmadinejad ethnic cleansing
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