Amid the ongoing widespread crackdown in Iran’s Kurdistan provinces, on January 20, 2026, the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) summoned and interrogated for several hours members of the family of Masoud Mirzaei Cheshmeh Gachi, a Kurdish political activist from Kermanshah.
Masoud Mirzaei, a follower of the Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq) faith who currently resides in a city in Germany, stated:
“Following the recent uprising in Kurdistan and across Iran, and due to my focused activities exposing the regime’s crimes in Kermanshah—especially in the Jafarabad neighborhood—the IRGC Intelligence Organization summoned several members of my family. After intense interrogations, they confiscated their mobile phones and returned them a week later.”
Mirzaei further said: “The IRGC intelligence forces have threatened my family in order to stop my political activities and my efforts to expose the regime’s crimes in Kermanshah. In addition to interrogating them, they have placed them under serious pressure and intimidation.”
He added: “They demanded my phone number and address from my family members and directly threatened me with death.”
The Kurdish political activist emphasized that: “Summoning my family to the IRGC Intelligence Organization, threatening and intimidating them, and issuing death threats against me have imposed unprecedented pressure on my family.”
It is worth noting that Masoud Mirzaei Cheshmeh Gachi was forced to leave Kurdistan and Iran in 2017 due to pressure from Iranian security agencies over his political and pro-freedom activities.
