Shortly after midnight, security forces stormed Shaho’s home in Tehran. They beat him in front of his family before taking him away without saying where he was being held.
“They raided our home after midnight, brutally assaulted my son, and then took him to an unknown location,” his father, a Kurdish man who has lived in the Iranian capital for years, told MBN.
Nearly a week later, the family still has no information about his whereabouts.
Shaho’s case reflects a pattern of arrests that Iranian activists and opposition figures say has intensified since the beginning of the year, targeting protesters, activists, and young people who previously took part in demonstrations or political activities.
According to those sources, the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States, is working alongside the Basij militia, which is also designated a terrorist organization, has carried out nighttime raids in residential neighborhoods across several cities. Some of those sought by the authorities have been forced to change their residences or flee their hometowns, while a limited number have escaped to Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Iraq’s Kurdistan Region through smuggling routes after border controls were tightened.
Activists who track detainee cases and remain in contact with their families estimate that more than 10,000 people may have been arrested by Iran’s security services over the past seven months. But the absence of independent access to prisons and detention facilities, along with the lack of comprehensive independent data, makes that figure difficult to verify.
According to the sources, detainees have faced charges including “waging war against God” (moharebeh), cooperating with Israel or the United States, and engaging in political or security activities against the state.
The activists said many detainees were initially transferred to detention centers run by the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence organization before being referred to trials they described as swift and lacking basic legal safeguards.
Arrested for the Second Time
Shaho’s father said this was the second time authorities had detained his son this year.
“The first time, he was arrested after joining friends in protests that swept Tehran and other cities earlier this year,” he said. “After about a month of detention, I was able to secure his release by paying a large sum of money.”
This time, however, the family has no idea where he is.
The father said he had contacted officials through intermediaries who promised—for a fee—to determine where his son was being held and inform the family.
He said he feared Shaho could face either execution or life imprisonment but still hoped he could secure his son’s release once again.
Families and activists say the authorities have not disclosed the full number of detainees. From time to time, officials announce the dismantling of what they describe as Israeli-linked espionage networks. Opposition figures, however, say some of those identified in such announcements are in fact activists and protesters.
Still, Iran’s judiciary spokesman, Asghar Jahangir, acknowledged in June that thousands of people had been arrested since the start of the year on security- and politically related charges.
Speaking to the semi-official Fars News Agency, Jahangir said security forces had arrested 3,292 people through June on charges that included espionage, cooperation with hostile governments, and anti-government political activities.
He said 684 people had been tried on charges of carrying out operations on Israel’s behalf, while another 657 faced trial for economic, financial, or technical cooperation with Israel. Twenty-one others, he said, were prosecuted for providing assistance to Israel.
Jahangir also said that 1,258 people had received sentences in cases involving political, media, or propaganda activities, while 193 others were prosecuted for using, possessing, purchasing, or selling unlicensed electronic devices or internet communications equipment.
According to Jahangir, authorities have issued 1,061 indictments in those cases and identified hundreds of movable and immovable assets for confiscation.
Former Activists Arrested Again
Jamil Ahmadi, a Kurdish opposition activist based in Europe, said part of the current campaign is focused on people who had previously been detained for participating in earlier waves of protests.
“The arrests now underway include the re-arrest of activists and demonstrators who were previously detained,” Ahmadi told MBN. “They also target people who helped lead or organize the protests but were not arrested at the time.”
He said the authorities were using periods of relative calm and reduced external tensions to pursue activists and bring them to trial.
Ahmadi added that several people executed in recent months had previously participated in protests, particularly demonstrations held earlier this year.
Iranian state media have reported that security agencies are relying in some cases on the country’s anti-espionage law, which Parliament approved in an amended form in July 2025.
The law provides for penalties that include the death sentence and asset confiscation in cases involving intelligence or operational cooperation with countries Iran considers hostile, foremost among them the United States and Israel.
Kurds Among Those Most Frequently Arrested
According to data provided by the Canada-based human rights organization Hana, Iranian authorities have arrested at least 720 Kurdish citizens in cities across Iran’s Kurdistan region since the beginning of the year.
The organization, which documents human rights violations in Iran, said those detained included 38 women, 34 minors, and eight environmental activists. Eight people were sentenced to death during the same period, it said.
Hamid Bahrami, the organization’s president, said heightened security measures had not only increased the risk of abuses but also made documenting them significantly more difficult.
“Many of these arrests follow patterns that human rights organizations have raised concerns about year after year,” Bahrami told MBN. “They include detention without judicial warrants, failing to notify families of detainees’ whereabouts, denying access to legal counsel, and interrogating suspects inside security facilities.”
He said such practices “turn legal procedures into a tool of repression.”
Enforced Disappearances and Torture
In a statement issued on April 29, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said Iranian authorities had arrested more than 4,000 people on national security-related charges between Feb. 28 and the end of April 2026.
He said many detainees had been subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, or other forms of cruel or degrading treatment, including coerced confessions, some of which were broadcast on television, as well as mock executions.
Türk said members of ethnic and religious minorities—including Bahá’ís, Zoroastrians, Kurds, and Baluchis—were particularly vulnerable.
According to the statement, authorities transferred dozens of prisoners to undisclosed locations without providing information about their fate, including the prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Türk described detention conditions as appalling, citing severe overcrowding, acute shortages of food, water, hygiene supplies, and medicine, as well as the denial of medical care to detainees.
Nearly a week after Shaho’s arrest, his family still does not know where he is being held—or whether the authorities will allow them to see him.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
