Environmental activist Awat Karami arrested by Iranian forces in Sanandaj

Hengaw – Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Awat Karami, a Kurdish environmental activist, has been arrested by Iranian forces in Negel village, Sanandaj (Sine), and transferred to an undisclosed location. His whereabouts remain unknown.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Karami, an environmental activist from Negel village, was arrested on the evening of Sunday, August 9, 2026, when Iranian forces raided his home.

During the raid, the forces used violence against Karami, bound his hands and feet, and forcibly removed him from his home before transferring him to an undisclosed location.

Karami had previously been arrested by Intelligence Department forces on January 16, 2019. He was subsequently sentenced to 40 months in prison by Branch One of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Saeidi, on charges of “acting against national security” and “cooperating with a Kurdish opposition party.”

His family’s efforts to obtain information about his condition and whereabouts have so far been unsuccessful.

Authorities have not disclosed the reasons for Karami’s arrest, the charges against him, his place of detention, or his current whereabouts.