Sabah Nasri Place of Birth

Page 1 of 12 Witness Statement of Sabah Nasri Witness Statement of Sabah Nasri Name: Sabah Nasri Place of Birth : Dehgolan, Kurdistan, Iran Date of Birth : March 21, 1980 Occupation : Kurdish activist Interviewing Organization: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) Date of Interview: February 22, 2011 Interviewer: IHRDC Staff This statement was prepared pursuant to an interview with Sabah Naasri. It was approved by Sabah Nasri on May 6, 2011. Page 2 of 12 Witness Statement of Sabah Nasri Statement 1. My name is Sabah Nasri and I was born in 1980 in the city of Dehgolan in the province of Kurdistan in Iran. 2. As a student at Tehran University, I was active with a group of Kurdish students who were studying in different universities in Tehran. We regularly met to discuss the issues facing Kurdish minorities in Iran. 3. I was arrested for these activities and spent a year and half in prison. After I was released I was prevented from continuing my education. I remained in Iran for 13-14 months after my release from prison during which time I was threatened by the security forces due to having continued my political activities in Iran and in Tehran University. The security forces and in particular the interrogator in charge of my previous case file contacted me and threatened me that if I were to continue my activities, I would be re-arrested and detained. On top of that, many of my friends had been arrested during gatherings we held in the University but I was able to escape the security forces. 4. For these reasons I came to the conclusion that it was better to leave the country than get arrested again. On February 16, 2010 I left Iran. Detention 5. While at University, my friends and I published a magazine called “Rujameh” that I was managing director of. We obtained the publication license for this magazine from Tehran University and its circulation was three thousand copies. We distributed it in different Kurdish cities as well. 6. The magazine was shut down for four months because the Office of Culture and Islamic Guidance of Sanandaj filed a formal complaint against the magazine. After those four months, we reopened the magazine and continued to publish. 7. Eventually, on account of my activities with the magazine and also my participation in gatherings and protests on student day—December 7—and international mother language day—February 21—and generally against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s policy of repression in Kurdistan, I was arrested on July 13, 2007 along with a friend. I spent 18 months in detention. 8. During the summer vacation of 2007, I was in Sanandaj, Kurdistan, along with my friend Hedayat Ghazali when we were approached and arrested by a group of plain clothes agents. They put us in a black Peugeot and told us they were taking us to “offer some explanations” and “answer a series of questions”—a process that took 18 months! Page 3 of 12 Witness Statement of Sabah Nasri 9. Hedayat Ghazali was a Kurd as well and studied at Alameh Helli University in Tehran. He was a member of the editorial board of the magazine, wrote for the magazine, and was active in other ways as well. 10. After the arrest the agents took us to the intelligence office in Sanandaj. I was in a solitary cell in the intelligence office for 41 days. Once the interrogations ended we were moved to Sanandaj Prison. I was there for 23 days until September 13, 2007 when Hedayat and I were woken up at 2 A.M. and transferred back to the intelligence office of Sanandaj. We remained there until 6 A.M. at which point they took us to Sanandaj Airport and relocated us to Tehran. 11. Once in Tehran, I was taken to Evin prison, the general section of ward 209, room 122. I remained there for 66 or 67 days. Hedayat was in room 122. In the intelligence wards those sharing the same case file are not kept in the same room to prevent any conspiring on their part. 12. Afterward, we were again moved back to Sanandaj Prison. During all this time we had undetermined status. We remained in Sanadaj Prison for two and a half or three months until we were moved to Tehran once again. 13. This time, we were both kept in a solitary cell in ward 209 for about a week. The reason for this was because the inspector in charge of our case was on vacation and without his order they could not move us to the general ward. Finally, we were moved to ward 7 of Evin prison by order of the inspector. I remained there until the last three months of my detention. 14. Around that time Kurdish political prisoners who were held in different prisons around the country started a mass hunger strike to protest their prison conditions and the security forces and judiciary’s discriminatory manner of dealing with Kurdish prisoners. The hunger strike lasted 44 days and included clear demands. For 16 consecutive days everyone went on hunger strike together, then for the rest of it, we completed it in rotations. We reported the strike to the others on the outside via telephone and therefore, we—Hedayat and I—were moved back to ward 209 for the last three months of our detention. Finally, after 18 months of detention and completion of our sentence, we were both released. Interrogations and Torture 15. The interrogations began from the early days when we were moved to the Sanandaj Intelligence office. Most of the questions concerned the activities we participated in at the University, especially our involvement with the magazine “Rujameh.” 16. Our “Rujameh” publication stood out from other publications at Tehran University both in appearance and content. It looked like a newspaper and was printed in color. The content was often penned by upper classmen and students in masters or PhD programs so it was denser than that of other publications. Our distribution license was exclusively for Tehran University but we also disseminated it in 16 cities in the Kurdistan region. Because our dissemination area was very large, the interrogators assumed there was an extensive and united structure backing our Page 4 of 12 Witness Statement of Sabah Nasri publication and so, they continuously asked us about the subjects, publication, dissemination and continuity of it. 17. I worked on another magazine—a weekly—at Tehran University called “Velat” along with another friend. I had executive roles in this magazine. Our work and activity alarmed the Herasat of the university 1 and they voiced their concerns over to the intelligence office in Sanandaj. 18. The University’s Herasat Office often reports to the Intelligence Office about student activists who are under surveillance. Since the city of Sanandaj filed a complaint against us for having distributed “Rujameh” in the city, they were extra sensitive to our publication. The majority of the questions in interrogation were about the publication. They even asked what publishing house we used and who owned it and other related questions. It was as if they were trying to forcefully extract something incriminating out of our answers. 19. Initially the interrogations occurred daily and always separate from one another. The length of the interrogations depended on the questions and usually spanned anywhere from one to five hours. Two interrogators conducted the first round of interrogations and once even three interrogators. But towards the end it was just one person. During the interrogations I was blindfolded and could not see the interrogator. I do not know what the main interrogator’s name was. 20. One of the interrogators at Sanandaj Intelligence Office, who is also the torturer there, is known as “Hatefi”. Of course this is his pseudonym. I heard this name later when I was in Sanandaj Prison. His name also appears on various websites. Websites claim he killed Ibrahim Lotfollahi, a young man who was tortured to death in the Sanandaj Intelligence office and who reportedly committed suicide. I could see Hatefi’s hand and some of his physical characteristics. He had a faint Turkish accent. Later when I described these characteristics to the guys in prison they agreed it must be Hatefi. 21. My torture was limited to slaps and punches. Mostly my torture was psychological because my fate was undetermined for 14 months when I did not even know what my charge was! I was transferred to Tehran a few times and returned to Sanandaj again but still did not know what my charge was. I was told I was in the interrogation phase and my case file had not been completed yet. Under Iranian law any defendant is entitled to have the charges against him explained to him within 24 hours of his arrest but this was not how my case file was conducted. They never showed me an arrest warrant. They do not really pay attention to such formalities in Iran. 22. The night we were transferred to Tehran they brought a letter written on A4 paper and folded in thirds. I was told to sign the letter without reading it. I was not willing to do that. After many arguments, the guard finally admitted that the letter was an order extending my detention. The intelligence officer himself said nothing to me even though I had insisted on knowing what the letter said. I was even told it did not matter if I signed the paper or not because ultimately they would take me with them.

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