Two years of forced disappearance of Osman Mame, a Woman-Life-Freedom Movement Arrestee

Hengaw: Sunday, November 17, 2024

Two years after the forced disappearance of Osman Mame, a Kurdish man from Bukan and one of those abducted during the Woman-Life-Freedom movement, no security or judicial institution of the Islamic Republic of Iran has provided answers about his fate.

According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, as of Sunday, November 17, 2024, it has been exactly two years since the forced disappearance of Osman Mame. Despite his family's appeals to all security, judicial, and supervisory institutions in Bukan and West Azerbaijan (Urmia) Province, they have received no clear response regarding his arrest, fate, or condition.

Hengaw has learned that over the past two years, the family even approached the Supreme Leader's extra-judicial institution known as "Leader's House," but were redirected to Bukan's security and judicial institutions without receiving any answers.

In recent follow-ups and through conversation with an informed source, Hengaw has learned that Bukan's Revolutionary Court judge told Osman Mame's family that the Islamic Republic has nothing to hide from them, stating that if their father had been killed, they would be informed as the government has no fear of them, therefore their father must be alive.

Hengaw previously reported that in the father's absence and under pressure from attempting to determine his fate, the family faces financial and psychological challenges. Although some Bukan city officials have promised to investigate Osman Mame's situation, no official or institution has successfully obtained or provided information about his fate to his family.

According to Hengaw's investigations, throughout the past two years, after each news report about Osman Mame's forced disappearance, his family and relatives face pressure from security institutions.

Osman Mame, 57 years old, has not had even one phone call with his family, and no document or trace of him has been found since his abduction.

Notably, before his forced disappearance, Osman Mame worked as a laborer at a poultry farm in Dukan, Kurdistan Region, and his wages were the family's only source of income.

Osman Mame, a resident of Bukan, was abducted by Islamic Republic of Iran security forces on Friday evening, November 18, 2022, while returning home, and his fate remains unknown.

Forced disappearance is a crime against humanity where an individual is arrested and concealed by state or political organizations without providing information about their fate or location to family or society. This act is typically carried out to create fear or as a method to suppress and punish political opponents. Forced disappearance constitutes a serious human rights violation and causes severe suffering and uncertainty for victims' families and friends.

Based on Article 2 of the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Hengaw holds the Islamic Republic of Iran directly responsible for Osman Mame's abduction and forced disappearance, demanding accountability from the state authorities and immediate access to his family, legal services, an attorney, and health services for him.