Former Kurdish political prisoner Khezr Rasoul Marvat re-arrested in Mahabad

Hengaw – Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Khezr (Shamal) Rasoul Marvat, a former Kurdish political prisoner from Mahabad, has been arrested for the third time by security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and transferred to an undisclosed location.

According to information obtained by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Rasoul Marvat, a literature scholar and former student activist, was detained at his private residence in Mahabad on the evening of Tuesday, October 28, 2025.

There is no information on the reasons for his arrest, the charges brought against him, or his whereabouts.

Rasoul Marvat was previously arrested in March 2013 for participating in a peaceful demonstration in support of the Shinabad schoolgirls, who were severely injured in a school fire in Mahabad. In October 2013, Branch 1 of the Mahabad Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Javadikia, sentenced him to five years in prison on charges of “acting against national security.” He was released after serving his full sentence in Mahabad Prison.

He had also been arrested earlier, in 1999, and sentenced to imprisonment. Despite passing the national entrance exams that same year, he was barred from continuing his postgraduate studies due to his political background.