Behzad Rasouli on hunger strike after 69 days incommunicado detention

Hengaw – Thursday, October 2, 2025

Behzad Rasouli, a 42-year-old Kurdish resident from Saqqez, has been transferred to Saqqez Central Prison after being held incommunicado for 69 days following his arrest in Isfahan. Rasouli has lost 13 kilograms after two weeks on hunger strike to protest his unlawful detention.

According to information obtained by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, security forces detained Rasouli on July 26, 2025, while he was in Isfahan to visit his 8-year-old child. For more than two months, his whereabouts remained unknown. Despite repeated visits by his sister to judicial and security offices in Isfahan, the family was denied any information about his condition or fate. He was only able to briefly contact his relatives after being transferred to Saqqez Central Prison, where he confirmed both his transfer and his hunger strike.

A reliable source told Hengaw that Rasouli has been deprived of access to legal counsel and, following his transfer, has been held in the prison’s quarantine ward. His hunger strike, which began two weeks ago, has already resulted in severe weight loss and deteriorating health.

This is not the first time Rasouli’s family has been targeted. In October 2021, his then-wife, Mitra Taghipour, and their 4-year-old son, Mehersam Rasouli, were detained by security forces at the Mehran border crossing in Ilam Province while returning from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. They were handed over to the IRGC Intelligence Organization in Isfahan for interrogation before being released.

Rasouli was previously a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) while living in the Iraqi Kurdistan. He later left the party and returned to Saqqez.