Javad Alikurdi, a lawyer with a PhD in Law and the brother of the recently deceased former political prisoner Khosrow Alikurdi, has been arrested by security forces in Mashhad and taken to an undisclosed location.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has reported that Javad Ali-Kurdi was detained shortly after publishing a video message addressed to government officials. In the video, he warned that, unless several recently detained activists were released, he would reveal information about his brother’s death.
The arrests followed a memorial ceremony held on 12 December to mark seven days since Khosrow Alikurdi’s death. The event, which took place in Mashhad amid a heavy security presence, was attended by large numbers of civil and political rights activists.
KHRN said that several participants were arrested during or after the ceremony, including Narges Mohammadi, Sepideh Ghalyan, Alieh Motallebzadeh, Pouran Nazemi and Hasti Amiri.
Khosrow Alikurdi, a lawyer who had represented political prisoners, detainees and the families of those killed during the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom) protests, died under suspicious circumstances at his office in Mashhad on 5 December.
While state media described the cause of death as a heart attack, his family and members of the legal community have expressed doubts about the circumstances surrounding his death, citing the authorities’ history of misinformation, the removal and confiscation of CCTV footage from his office and the repeated threats he had received from security agencies regarding his legal work in recent years.