Bukan — Kurdish environmentalist, former political prisoner Smko Maroufi arrested again

Hengaw – Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Smko Maroufi, a former Kurdish political prisoner and environmental activist from Bukan, was arrested by Iran’s Intelligence Department forces and transferred to an undisclosed location.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, on Monday, June 30, 2025, several intelligence vehicles surrounded Maroufi’s home in one of Bukan’s neighborhoods before arresting him.

No information is available regarding the reasons for his arrest, his place of detention, or any charges brought against him.

Maroufi was previously arrested on March 6, 2021, by Bukan’s Intelligence Department and temporarily released after 25 days in detention on bail of 1 billion IRR (approximately 100 million tomans) pending trial.

In April 2021, he was sentenced without legal representation by Branch 104 of Bukan’s Criminal Court to one year of discretionary imprisonment and a two-year travel ban on charges of “propaganda against the state.” On November 10, 2021, he was re-arrested to serve this sentence at Bukan Central Prison and was released after completing it.

In 2019, Maroufi was also sentenced by Branch 101 of Bukan’s Criminal Court to two years in prison on charges of “disturbing public order” for participating in protests condemning Turkey’s military incursion into Syrian Kurdistan. He was arrested on February 3, 2020, to serve this sentence and was conditionally released in December 2020.