Iran Arrests an Arab Poet and Several Sunni Arabs

According to informed sources  Iranian security and intelligence forces yesterday, 14 January 2013 arrested several Ahwazi Sunnis among them Adel Musa Al Khanfari, 27 and Ali Heidar Al Khanfari Al Batrani, 23, from Kut Abdullah district, Ahwaz city.

In a similar incident, Malek Obaid Al Bughbaish, an Ahwazi poet, from Al Kora, Maashour city, also was arrested. The whereabouts of all those arrested remains unknown.

Amnesty International calls for URGENT ACTION as Five Ahwazis Face Imminent Execution

"Five members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority have been sentenced to death and may be at risk of imminent execution. They were reportedly tortured. A sixth Ahwazi Arab man was sentenced to 20 years in prison. All were arrested in connection with their activities on behalf of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority and are believed to have been tried unfairly.  On 7 July 2012, Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and his brother Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka, and teachers Hashem Sha’bani Amouri, Hadi Rashidi (or Rashedi) and Rahman Asakereh were sentenced by Branch 2 of the Ahwaz Revolutionary Court after conviction of charges including the vaguely-worded offences of “enmity against God and corruption on earth" (moharebeh va ifsad fil-arz), “gathering and colluding against state security” and “spreading propaganda against the system”. Five received death sentences, except Rahman Asakereh who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, to be served in internal exile. Two of the men were shown on a government television channel before the trial “confessing” to the allegations. The men are currently held in Karoun prison in the city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, and are believed to have been denied access to their lawyers and families. All six were arrested at their homes in February and March 2011.