Fate of PJAK member remains unknown a year after disappearance

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A human rights group on Monday expressed mounting concerns over the whereabouts of a member of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) who disappeared after clashing with the Iranian security forces in mid-2021 with his mother pleading for answers on his condition.

Idris Fiqhi disappeared on 24 July 2021 after being ambushed and wounded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near the Kurdish city of Bukan in West Azerbaijan province, and his whereabouts are unknown with his mother pleading for answers about his condition, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said. 

"My son has been imprisoned Urmia for a year. I go to the office of the intelligence ministry, to the court, and to the prison, but they do not give me a clear answer," Fiqhi's mother Fatemeh Maghsoudi said on the anniversary of her son's disappearance, adding that she constantly receives mixed responses from Iranian authorities.

In late February, Fiqhi's family members had gathered in front of an IRGC office to receive clarity about his situation, but Maghsoudi and others were detained after the mother attempted to set herself on fire in protest. They were eventually released after Iranian police made them vow to not gather in front of the IRGC office again. 

According to KHRN, IRGC authorities over the past year have presented contradictory scenarios with regards to his whereabouts, initially claiming his death and saying they would deliver his death certificate but failing to provide any evidence to the family.

The human rights group claims that Fiqhi is alive and being held at Haft-e Tir detention center of IRGC's intelligence organization in Urmia and has been spotted at least twice last year in the facility, but severe injuries along with incompletion of his treatment have placed him in a poor physical condition.

PJAK in August released the identity of two of its members, Fiqhi from Sanandaj and Muhsin Qadri from Bukan, attributing their death to clashes with the IRGC. The Kurdish group later stated that Qadri was alive and Fiqhi had been arrested after being wounded by the IRGC. 

Established in 2003, PJAK is considered the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), but PJAK claims its links are only ideological. Both groups use the Kurdistan Region as a launchpad to conduct attacks on Turkish and Iranian security forces.

The PJAK has lost at least 300 fighters in clashes with Iranian security forces and in shelling by both Iran and Turkey since the group's foundation, according to data obtained by Rudaw English last year.