December Protests - 26 Kurds detained by Iranian authorities
Hengaw – Monday, January 5, 2026
At least 26 Kurdish individuals, including one woman and four children, have been detained by Iranian authorities in connection with the December protests.
According to the information obtained by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, these detentions were carried out across multiple cities, including Divandarreh, Sahneh, Dehloran, Ilam, Mahabad, Kamyaran, Karaj, Abdanan, Malekshahi, Sanandaj (Sine), Darreh Shahr, Sarableh, and Kermanshah (Kermashan).
Hossein Kaki from Abdanan, Ayoub Karimi from Malekshahi in Ilam Province, Rouhollah Karami from Dehloran, Bijan Maqsoodi from Darreh Shahr, and Noushad Arabi, a 48-year-old resident of Sarableh in Ilam Province, were detained by government forces on Monday, January 5, 2026.
Four Kurdish children were detained during the same wave of arrests on Sunday, January 4, 2026. They include Moein Maleki, 16, from Dehloran; Raman Eghbali, 17, from Sanandaj; Amirhossein Seydi Boujani, a 17-year-old from the Jafarabad neighborhood of Kermanshah; and Rezgar Amani, 15, from Kamyaran. Amani was detained on accusations related to “writing protest slogans” and transferred to the Sanandaj Juvenile Detention and Rehabilitation Center.
Additional arrests carried out on January 4 included Milad and Misagh Seydmoradi, two 18-year-old brothers from Dehloran; Dr. Ali Akbar Omidi, a civil activist; Nasser Sheikhi from Malekshahi; and Mobin Oulad from Darreh Shahr.
Three residents of Ilam, Mahdeseh Rezazadeh, a 18-year-old female ; Mohammadmehdi Idian, 19; and Amir Lotfi, 19, were also detained in the city on the same day.
Meisam Nouri, a 21-year-old resident of Ilam who had been injured during the protests, was detained later that evening on January 4 following a raid by Iranian authorities on Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ilam. At the time of his detention, he had a broken tooth and a fractured wrist and was transferred to an undisclosed location.
Reza Pahlavani, a Kurdish resident of Divandarreh; Milad Mardani, 21; Amirhossein Mazhari, 23, both from Sahneh in Kermanshah Province; and Nabi Omidi, an associate professor of economics at Ilam University, were also detained that day and transferred to undisclosed locations.
Iman Cheshteh, a resident of Piranshahr and a law undergraduate student at Mahabad University, was detained on January 4 at the Darlak intersection in Mahabad.
As the wave of detentions continued, Armin Rahimi, 20, and Sina Moradi, 23, both from the village of Ahmadabad in Takab County, were detained in Karaj on Friday evening, January 3, 2026. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
In a related case, Ehsan Maleki, a 34-year-old resident of Dehloran, was detained earlier on Wednesday, December 31, 2025, and transferred to Ilam Central Prison.
