Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Habibollah Tanha'ian

About

Age: 45
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Non-Believer
Civil Status: Married

Case

Date of Killing: December, 2003
Location of Killing: Sanandaj, Kordestan Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Death in custody
Charges: Sympathizing with anti-regime guerilla groups
Age at time of alleged offense: 45

About this Case

Because the village of Gelin was a disenfranchised and underprivileged area, and because there was conflict between Kurdish opposition parties and government forces, Mr. Tanhaian was deprived of an education as a child and had only completed elementary school

Information about Mr. Habibollah Tanhaian’s murder while in custody, was obtained from Rooz News and Analysis Website (October 1, 2013) and from Mr. Yasser Goli’s testimony [published] by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (May 11, 2012). Additional information was obtained from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation’s interview with Mr. Ammar Goli, a person who was close to Mr. Tanhaian and saw his body after he had been murdered.

Mr. Tanhaian was a 45-year-old Kurd from the Ourami-speaking village of Gelin, located in [the city of] Sanandaj’s Javrud region. He was married, had four children, and resided in Sanandaj’s underprivileged neighborhood of Ghafur. Because the village of Gelin was a disenfranchised and underprivileged area, and because of the clashes between Kurdish opposition parties and government forces, Mr. Tanhaian was deprived of an education as a child and had only an elementary school education. He was a tile and stone installer and at times engaged in beekeeping (Boroumand Foundation interview).

According to Mr. Ammar Goli, Mr. Tanhaian did not hold any religious beliefs. He had been accused of “atheism and heresy” by Darvish groups, extremist religious individuals and groups, and local forces dependent on and associated with the regime, because of the conversations he had with his friends and the people around him, criticizing religious and political issues in Kurdistan (Boroumand Foundation interview).

According to Mr. Goli, Mr. Tanhaian was a quiet and generous man. He was known among his entourage and the residents of the village of his birth as a person who helped others. Mr. Tanhaian had a fighting spirit and was faithful to his ideals and political beliefs, which he defended “with logic, not other means” (Boroumand Foundation interview).

Based on available information, Mr. Tanhaian had been arrested several times for his political party-related activities but had been released without being convicted. He was a supporter of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, and participated in party activities by distributing party pamphlets, announcements, books, and CD’s in Sanandaj. Mr. Tanhaian’s brother was a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan who was killed in the clashes between the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan forces and the Army of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards forces between 1985 and 1987 (Boroumand Foundation interview).

The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan was founded in 1945 with the goal of obtaining autonomy for Kurdistan in northwestern Iran. After the Islamic Revolution, the disagreements between the Shi’a government of the Islamic Republic and the mainly Sunni-inhabited Kurdistan Province regarding the rights and roles of minorities in drafting the Constitution, designating the Shi’a religion as the country’s official religion, and the issue of Kurdistan’s autonomy in particular, led to severe clashes, at times armed, between the Revolutionary Guards and the Peshmerga (the armed forces of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan). The Democratic Party of Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan boycotted the April 1 referendum [on the establishment of the Islamic Republic (April 1, 1979)]. On August 19, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini declared the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan “unofficial and illegal” and called it “the party of the Devil”. Mass executions and heavy armed battles continued in the region for months. Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan lost its power in the region to a great extent in the course of the following four years, and several of [its] leaders were assassinated. In 2006, there was a split in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan following internal disputes, which divided the Party into two separate organizations, “Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan” and “Kurdistan Democratic Party”.

Arrest and detention

On December 12 or December 13, 2003, following a report by a person close to him to the effect that Mr. Tanhaian had a secret warehouse where he kept the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s pamphlets and announcements, Sanandaj Information Administration forces arrested Mr. Tanhaian in Sanandaj’s Ghafur neighborhood. The agents took him to one of Sanandaj Information Administration’s detention centers. Mr. Tanhaian was at that detention center for 9 days (Boroumand Foundation interview).

Ammar Goli: “A man with a motorcycle, that nobody knew, would go to his house twice a day and threaten his wife and family, insult them, and tell them ‘We’ve killed your husband and we will give you his corpse soon’.” 

According to Mr. Ammar Goli, after Mr. Tanhaian’s arrest, Information forces took him and the person who had reported him to Mr. Tanhaian’s home where they discovered and confiscated pamphlets and announcements pertaining to the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (Boroumand Foundation interview).

After Mr. Tanhaian’s arrest, his wife’s efforts in obtaining information about his condition bore no fruit in spite of her going to Sanandaj Information Administration Information Headquarters, Sanandaj Police force, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Shahramfar [Military] Base in Sanandaj (Boroumand Foundation interview).

According to Mr. Ammar Goli, quoting Mr. Tanhaian’s spouse, during the time Mr. Tanhaian was in custody, “a man with a motorcycle, that nobody knew, would go to his house twice a day and threaten his wife and family, insult them, and tell them ‘We’ve killed your husband and we will give you his corpse soon” (Boroumand Foundation interview).

According to Mr. Ammar Goli’s testimony, who had seen Mr. Tanhaian’s body after it was turned over to his family and [in preparation for burial], was being washed at Imam Hossein Mosque located in the Ghafur neighborhood, Mr. Tanhaian had been subjected to torture while in custody. Mr. Goli stated: “Both his arms had been broken, his right clavicle, that is, the bone in his right shoulder, had been broken, his right leg, if I’m not mistaken (because I witnessed the body)… His neck was broken. There were burn marks on his back in three areas, larger than what one would get with an iron. In short, there were horrendous signs of torture on his body. There were signs of electric shock on his hands. There were horrible bruises on his body. He was not the man that I had seen exactly two days prior to his arrest” (Boroumand Foundation interview).

Mr. Yasser Goli, another person who saw Mr. Tanhaian’s lifeless body, described the signs of torture on the latter’s corpse in his testimony: “…We saw his corpse. There was a wire [mark] around his neck; his body was [covered in] bruises, like polka dots. It was very clear and obvious that it was the marks of electric shock. His neck had the marks of laceration by a wire, not the marks of suffocation with carpeting; because they had said that he had hung himself with carpeting…” (Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, May 10, 2012).

Mr. Tanhaian was deprived of visitation and contact with his family, and of access to an attorney, during detention.

Trial

There was no trial in connection with Mr. Tanhaian’s arrest. He was killed in Sanandaj Information Administration detention centers less than nine days after his arrest.

He was killed in less than nine days at the Sanandaj Information Administration detention center

Charges

According to Mr. Ammar Goli, it is possible that the charges brought against Mr. Tanhaian were “possession of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s pamphlets and announcements”. There is no information about the details of the possible charges brought against Mr. Tanhaian.

Evidence of guilt

Based on available information, the report by a person close to Mr. Tanhaian that he kept the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s publicity announcements, books, and CD’s, and discovery and confiscation thereof at his home, were among the reasons for Mr. Tanhaian’s arrest and detention.

Defense

Since no trial ever took place to consider the charges brought against Mr. Tanhaian, he did not get a chance to officially defend himself.

Mr. Tanhaian was not armed and had not participated in any armed operations

According to Mr. Ammar Goli, Mr. Tanhaian was not armed and had not participated in any armed operations. Additionally, at the time of his arrest, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan did not have any armed activities and “had sidelined its armed tendency for 7 or 8 years, and was not involved in any armed clashes in the region either, to allow us to say that [Mr. Tanhaian had cooperated with the [armed] teams that were [active] in the region” (Boroumand Foundation interview).

Judgment

No official sentence was issued for Mr. Tanhaian.

On the night of December 22, 2003, Sanandaj Information Administration forces turned Mr. Tanhaian’s body was over to his family in front of the Imam Hossein Mosque located in Sanandaj’s Ghafur neighborhood. His family washed Mr. Tanhaian’s body at the Imam Hossein Mosque and wrapped him in the [traditional] shroud. According to Mr. Goli, security forces did not allow Mr. Tanhaian’s family to conduct his burial during the day, and, under severe pressure from Information forces, and in spite of severe cold, they buried his body at Sanandaj’s Behesht Mohammadi Cemetery at 1:30 in the morning (Boroumand Foundation interview).

Mr. Tanhaian’s family was not permitted to conduct his burial during the day, and, in spite of severe cold, buried his body at night

Based on available information, Mr. Tanhaian’s family held services for him in their home. However, few people attended the services due to the presence of security forces around the location where they were being held. Security forces allowed Mr. Tanhaian’s family only one day to hold services. According to Mr. Goli, a number of people who were close to Mr. Tanahaian did not partake in his funeral services because they deemed him to be “an atheist and an infidel” (Boroumand Foundation interview).

Based on available information, security forces made threats against Mr. Tanhaian’s family in order to prevent them from following up on his arrest and murder. In spite of these threats, however, Mr. Tanhaian’s wife followed up on his case but her efforts bore no fruit. Security forces arrested Mr. Tanhaian’s wife for two days because of [her insistence on] pursuing her husband’s case, and she was given a suspended sentence at trial (Boroumand Foundation interview).

Following Mr. Tanhaian’s murder in custody, his [family and relatives] made pleas to Sanandaj representatives in the Islamic Consultative Assembly (“Majless”, the Iranian parliament) and requested that they follow up on his murder, but their efforts were futile. According to Mr. Ammar Goli, one of Sanandaj’s Majless Members who was from the same village as Mr. Tanhaian and knew him had told his relatives “I don’t know. They told us that the Information [Ministry] has said that he committed suicide; and I hear they say he was a heretic,” and had not pursued his case.

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