Arrests in
Shush following pipeline explosion
The Iranian regime has rounded up a
number of men in the Khalaf Al-Moslem area near Shush as it seeks to combat a
growing armed insurgency among members of the persecuted and deprived Ahwazi
Arab community.
The names of nine men arrested by
the intelligence services have been revealed by the Arab Struggle Movement for
the Liberation of Al-Ahwaz (ASMLA), also known as the National Resistance of
Al-Ahwaz, the political front of the militants that recently blew up a gas
pipeline in the Shush area. Most of the men are from the Al-Kaabi tribe, which
is dominant in the area. They are:
- Ali Chbeishat (Al-Kaabi), 46
- Hussein Ali Chbeishat (Al-Kaabi), son of Ali Chbeishat, 28, married with one child
- Salah Aldin Ali Chbeishat (Al-Kaabi), 22
- Habib Silawi (Al-Kaabi)
- Sayed Yasin Mousawi, 34
- Salman Jayan (Al-Kaabi), 32
- Mohammad Jayan (Al-Kaabi), 30
- Karim Jayan (Al-Kaabi), 34
- Aashour Shamakli, 33 from Alsarkha village
The families of the detainees
gathered in front of the local intelligence services building demanding information
on charges against them and calling for their release. They were dispersed
after they were told the detainees would be transferred to the custody of the
provincial headquarters of the intelligence services in Ahwaz City.
ASMLA also announced that two other
previously arrested Ahwazi Arab detainees (pictured right) were transferred
from the Shawoor area of Shush to the intelligence services in Ahwaz City.
Abdullah Abbas Al-Sarih (31), arrested on 19 August, and the poet Ahmad Ali
Al-Kaabi (27), arrested on 8 September, have been subjected to physical and
mental torture. Relatives of the men claim they have been forced to confess
activities they were not involved in.
Ahwazi Arabs have frequently
testified that they have suffered torture in order to extract false
confessions. A secretly filmed testimony by four Ahwazi Arabs, who were
executed earlier this year, alleged the direct involvement of state prosecutors
in torture. Detainees are tortured into implicating innocent men and claiming
they were acting on behalf of various foreign governments. Despite repeatedly
claiming to have broken up the Ahwazi Arab insurgency, the Iranian regime has
faced mounting social unrest and militancy within the impoverished ethnic group
whose homeland contains one of the world's largest reserves of oil.
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