Iran political prisoner sews lips shut to protest detention - rights group
A Kurdish political prisoner in Iran began a hunger strike by sewing his lips in protest at being denied family visits and prison leave, a rights group said on Tuesday.
A Kurdish political prisoner in Iran began a hunger strike by sewing his lips in protest at being denied family visits and prison leave, a rights group said on Tuesday.
Nayeb Askari, who is serving a 15-year sentence at Orumiyeh Central Prison in northwest Iran formally informed prison authorities that he had started a hunger strike and sewed his lips on December 13, France-based rights group Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said.
In a letter to prison officials, Askari said he had been barred from family visits for the past year without explanation and that repeated requests for temporary prison leave had gone unanswered. He launched the hunger strike after prison authorities failed to respond to his complaints, he added.
Askari, from Orumiyeh, was arrested on March 24, 2021, by intelligence agents from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was initially held at the IRGC’s Al-Mahdi detention center for three months, where he was allegedly subjected to physical and psychological torture, according to KHRN.
"He was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture in order to extract forced confessions," KHRN said. "He was also denied access to a lawyer and contact with his family during this period," the rights group added.
Askari's arrest followed his return to Iran from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq after receiving what the rights group described as a “safe-conduct letter” arranged through the IRGC.
Iranian authorities initially sentenced Askari to death in absentia in 2018 on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) linked to alleged membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), according to KHRN. The sentence was later overturned, and the charge was amended to “armed insurrection” (baghi).
In October 2023, Askari was again sentenced to death on the same charge, prompting a brief hunger strike. The Supreme Court later overturned the ruling for a second time and referred the case to another court branch.
In mid-October 2024, Askari was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 900 million rials (about $700) on charges of “armed insurrection,” the rights group said.
KHRN said Askari has previously staged prolonged hunger strikes in detention, including a 32-day strike in 2021 to protest authorities’ refusal to transfer him to an external hospital for medical treatment.
Hamid Ziaei, who was detained in June after a check-in appointment with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California, had been held at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico while US officials pursued possible deportation to a third country, his attorneys said.
“The US government provided no evidence that there was any likelihood of Mr. Ziaei’s removal in the reasonable, foreseeable future,” Rachel Landry, a staff attorney at Innovation Law Lab, told the court in Albuquerque, the group said.
US District Court Judge Matthew Garcia said he would issue an order for Ziaei’s release within 24 hours, Landry and fellow attorney Tiffany Wang said.
Court filings on Ziaei’s behalf say he fled Iran after speaking out against the government and entered the United States in San Diego in January 2024. His asylum request was rejected, but he was released in mid-2024 with authorization to work based on concerns he could face persecution if returned to Iran, the filings said.
An ICE officer said in court documents that the agency began vetting Ziaei for removal to a third country in August and initiated procedures to coordinate an interview with a foreign embassy that might accept him.
The US attorney’s office in New Mexico, representing immigration authorities, declined to comment. In filings, immigration authorities cited a 2001 US Supreme Court ruling they said gives the government at least six months to make removal arrangements.
In a December 2 statement submitted to the court, Ziaei said prolonged detention led to anxiety and panic attacks, deferred dental treatment for infections, and weight and muscle loss that could affect his future income as an athlete.
The case comes as Iran’s foreign ministry has confirmed recent US detentions and deportations of Iranian nationals under tightened immigration enforcement, including groups returned to Iran via transit countries.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed an armed clash on the Zahedan-Fahraj road, saying “three law enforcement personnel and one ordinary citizen” were killed.
In a statement issued early Tuesday, the Guards’ Qods Ground Forces headquarters said security and intelligence agencies were investigating the incident.
The IRGC headquarters for the southeast is one of ten regional commands and oversees the largest geographic area, covering the provinces of Sistan-Baluchestan and Kerman, and commanding multiple provincial Guards units and key combat brigades in the region.
The rights group Haalvsh, which monitors unrest in the region, earlier reported that the Fahraj incident occurred at a checkpoint in neighboring Kerman province and said four security personnel – two intelligence officers and two police – were killed, with several others wounded. The group published video footage showing injured officers and bodies being transferred from the scene.
At the same time, a second confrontation involving armed assailants and Iranian forces was reported in the city of Iranshahr, also in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
In Iranshahr, Haalvsh said gunmen targeted three military vehicles in the early hours of Tuesday, killing and wounding an unspecified number of security personnel.
The group cited local sources and said roads leading toward Zahedan were blocked by military forces, leaving travelers stranded with no indication of when routes would reopen.
Iranian authorities have not released casualty figures for the Iranshahr attack, nor have they commented on the identity or motives of the attackers. No group has officially claimed responsibility for either incident.
The attacks are the latest in a series of armed confrontations in Iran’s impoverished southeast, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and has long been plagued by violence involving Sunni Baluch militant groups and Iranian security forces.
Pattern of attacks and militant regrouping
In recent months, similar clashes have intensified. Last week, the Guards said four of their members were killed and three wounded in an attack by what they described as “terrorist and hostile groups” in the Lar area near Zahedan.
A day later, Haalvsh reported that a newly formed coalition calling itself the “Popular Fighters Front” claimed responsibility, saying it had ambushed a Guards convoy.
The Popular Fighters Front announced its formation earlier this month, presenting itself as a merger of several Baluch political and militant factions, including the PADA Baluch Movement, Harakat Nasr Balochistan, Jaish al-Adl, the Mohammad Rasulallah group led by Haji Vahed Bakhsh, and self-described “spontaneous Baluch fighters.”
In a video message posted online, a masked spokesman identified as Mahmoud Baluch said the coalition aimed to increase the effectiveness of resistance against what he described as oppression by Iran’s ruling system.
While the group’s manifesto emphasized civil, media and political action, it did not renounce armed operations and claimed responsibility for recent attacks.
Jaish al-Adl – designated a terrorist organization by both Iran and the United States – has emerged as the dominant force within the coalition, analysts say.
The group formed around 2012 after the execution of Abdelmalek Rigi, the leader of its predecessor, Jundullah, and has since carried out bombings, ambushes and suicide attacks against Iranian police, border guards and the Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian state-linked media have sought to downplay the significance of the merger, portraying it as a rebranding of weakened factions aimed at attracting foreign backing. Some outlets have alleged links to Israeli intelligence, a claim the groups deny.
Shift in strategy
Security analysts say the emergence of the Popular Fighters Front reflects an attempt by Baluch militants to broaden their appeal beyond a narrowly defined Sunni ethnic insurgency.
Recent statements from the group have adopted more inclusive language, addressing Kurds, Arabs, Turks and other minorities and framing their struggle in terms of shared political and economic marginalization.
The shift follows years of intensified counterinsurgency operations by Iranian forces in Sistan-Baluchestan, including arrests, cross-border pressure near Pakistan, and heightened surveillance. Despite this, militant groups have continued to demonstrate the capacity to stage deadly attacks.
Iran’s southeast remains one of the country’s poorest regions, with longstanding grievances over discrimination, underdevelopment and heavy-handed security policies.
These tensions flared during the nationwide protests of 2022, when security forces carried out lethal crackdowns in Baluch and Kurdish areas.
According to an article by US-based Al-Monitor news website this week, while transforming a Baluch-based insurgency into a national movement would require organizational depth and cross-ethnic networks that militant groups have historically lacked, the new coalition “adds a layer of political complexity” for Tehran.
Nazemi was detained during a memorial service in the northeastern city of Mashhad for Khosrow Alikordi, a former political prisoner and lawyer for dissidents whose sudden death left supporters suspicious of state involvement, which Tehran denies.
At the ceremony, security forces used force to dispersed mourners and arrested 39 people, including activists, lawyers and civil society figures.
Nazemi’s sister Mahshid told Iran International she was on a live video call with Pouran when security forces stormed the mosque where the commemoration was being held.
“The security officers opened the mosque’s doors and attacked the people with batons and knives,” Mahshid said. “They threw tear gas inside the mosque," Mahshid said.
Mahshid was able to record portions of the incident by capturing the live video call with her sister, though she was unable to document the alleged knife and baton attacks she described.
She did, however, provide photos showing what appear to be knife wounds and a bloodied scene.
Videos reviewed by Iran International show Pouran describing the crackdown in real time before the feed was abruptly cut. Screams and loud bangs were audible.
Mahshid said she watched plainclothes officers beat women inside the mosque and drag people away. “They attacked them very badly. We could only hear screaming and see the camera shaking,” she said.
Iran International was not immediately able to verify all aspects of her account of the raid.
Defiance, fear of death
“It was terrifying,” Mahshid said. “But I also felt proud because I saw a group of brave women, without the hijab, in a mosque, in a religious city, shouting ‘Death to the dictator’ and ‘Woman, Life, Freedom."
The Woman, Life, Freedom movement marked one of the most serious challenges the Islamic Republic has faced, with protests erupting nationwide in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody and calling for an end to clerical rule.
Nazemi's sister says they still do not know where she is being held or which security body is responsible for her detention, though they fear the case may be under the authority of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“We don’t know which prison she is in or which organization is holding her,” Mahshid said. “And when there is no official information, the risk of torture and fabricated charges increases,” she added.
The family is also concerned about Nazemi’s health. She has a history of stomach cancer, severe respiratory problems and life-threatening anaphylactic reactions caused by medical negligence during a previous detention, according to her sister.
During an earlier imprisonment, Nazemi suffered allergic shock after being given an antibiotic she was known to be sensitive to while undergoing surgery, Mahshid said.
“Since then, her condition has never been stable. Now I don’t know if she is receiving any medication at all,” she told Iran International.
There is also an open case against Nazemi in the southeastern city of Kerman, which her family fears could be used to impose harsher charges.
“They have already given her 14 years in prison in one case,” Mahshid said. “They don’t answer us, they don’t give court documents, and they argue with our lawyers,” she told Iran International.
From memorial to mass arrests
Iranian authorities say 39 people were arrested during the memorial ceremony. Those detained included Alikordi’s brother Javad Alikordi, Mohammadi and human rights activists Aliyeh Motallebzadeh, Sepideh Gholian, and Hasti Amiri.
Several detainees have since made brief phone calls to their families, but relatives say information about their condition and whereabouts remains limited.
In a message relayed by her family, Mohammadi said she was severely beaten during her arrest, suffering repeated blows to the head and neck with batons, and was later accused of “cooperation with the State of Israel.”
Human rights groups say the arrests followed a violent crackdown on mourners at the memorial, which had become a flashpoint amid growing controversy over Alikordi’s death.
Alikordi, a lawyer known for defending political prisoners and bereaved families, was found dead in his office in Mashhad on December 5. Authorities say he died of a heart attack, but his family and colleagues have questioned the official account, citing the removal of surveillance cameras and inconsistencies in the investigation.
Calling on the international community to act, Mahshid urged governments and rights groups to demand accountability.
“When names and locations are hidden, people are tortured and silenced,” she said. “Be a voice. Raise the cost for the Islamic Republic and demand transparency — for my sister and for the suspicious death of Khosrow Alikordi,” she told Iran International.