Pouria Nasiri re-arrested in Mahabad as number of detainees rises to three

Hengaw: Saturday, June 21, 2025

A Kurdish university student, Pouria Nasiri, has been arrested again by security forces in the city of Mahabad, raising the number of people recently detained there to three.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Nasiri, an undergraduate law student at the Islamic Azad University of Mahabad, was arrested on Thursday, June 19, 2025, by plainclothes agents while walking on a public street in the city.

This is not the first time Nasiri has been targeted by authorities. He was previously detained by the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Mahabad on October 30, 2023.

Nasiri’s arrest follows the earlier detention of two other Kurdish residents of Mahabad—Soroush Yousefzadeh and Mehran Khediripour—on the same day. During Yousefzadeh’s arrest, security forces searched his home and confiscated several personal items, including the mobile phones of his father and brother.
No official charges or reasons have been announced for the arrests.