Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Intelligence Department in Mariwan on Saturday detained Kurdish poet and civil right activist Aram Fathi, his family and close friends confirmed.
According to a close friend of Fathi, who talked to Avatoday on condition of anonymity, “security forces went to his father’s house on Friday without any legal permission, searching for him. But Aram was not at home at that time.”
Fathi has been detained a day after on Saturday’s morning. The security forces have not mentioned the reason for his detention.
The Kurdish poet, who had been arrested several years ago for supporting local Kolbars, threatened on Friday by some unknown Instagram users on his page.
One of this unknown user with a picture of former Iranian Quds Chief, Qassem Suleimani, threatened Fathi for sharing a video showing several other Kurdish environmental activists while dancing.
The user had apparently blamed Fathi for sharing a “dancing video” only hours after the news of Qassem Soleimani’s death in a US strike in Iraq was broke out on Friday morning.
“We have no clue why they all of the sudden detained him. He hasn’t done anything,” the source told Avatoday.
When asking about the content of a video shared by Fathi on Instagram, the source added that “It was just a simple video. It was not political or anything. It showed the city’s several of very popular environmentalists dancing. Kurdish dancing has nothing to do with politics.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced three-days of public mourning for Suleiman’s death later on Friday.
