Security forces of Kermanshah, western Iran, have raided the residences of the relatives of a Kurd witness who testified in Aban International Court investigating the bloody crackdown on the protests in Iran in November 2019.
The security forces searched their houses and interrogated the residents.
Sohbatollah Omidi, who was arrested during the November 2019 protests, announced: “In the past few days, after my family returned from my grandmother’s funeral, a convoy of security forces surrounded one of my brothers’ house. After raiding his house, they searched the house and interrogated the family members.”
Sohbatollah Omidi was wounded during the November 2019 Iran protests. A few days later, on November 19, 2019, he was arrested while he was staying at a friend’s house in Kermanshah.
According to this Kurdish activist, after his departure from Iran and following his testimony at the Iran Atrocities Aban Tribunal last November, security forces increased their pressure on his family in Iran. Sohbatullah Omidi, a Kurdish activist, testified as a witness in the Aban Tribunal about his detention and the November 2019 protests in Kermanshah.
During his detention in the Intelligence Department of Kermanshah, Mr. Omidi was deprived of having access to appropriate medical services. Security forces transferred him to the notorious Dieselabad Prison in Kermanshah on December 27, 2019, after his interrogations were over.
During this period, Mr. Omidi said despite being wounded, he had been viciously tortured, both physically and psychologically. But he did not confess to anything. Nevertheless, he was subjected to mock execution.
On December 30, he was temporarily released from Dieselabad on a bial of 200 million Tomans.
The trial of this Kurdish activist was held on February 15, 2020, in Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court of Kermanshah. He was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “membership in opposition groups” and five years in prison on charges of “conspiracy and collusion against national security.” This verdict was later upheld by the Kermanshah Court of Appeals.
Aban Tribunal witness Sohbatullah Omidi was forced to leave the country and put his family behind in winter 2020. After his departure, his wife and 7-year-old child were banned from leaving the country.
