IRANIAN KURDISH ACTIVIST IN TURKEY SEEKING

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 007559

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/23/2015
TAGS: PREF SMIG PGOV PHUM PTER IR TU
SUBJECT: IRANIAN KURDISH ACTIVIST IN TURKEY SEEKING
RESETTLEMENT


Classified by Acting Polcouns Charles O. Blaha; reasons 1.4 b
and d.


1. (C) Summary: Well-known Iranian Kurdish activist Roya
Toloui is currently in Turkey seeking re-settlement in a
third country, preferably the U.S. She told us Iranian
authorities tortured her in detention after her August arrest
for allegedly organizing protests in Iranian Kurdistan. End
Summary.


2. (C) We met December 21 with Toloui, a journalist and
Iranian Kurdish rights activist who has been in Turkey since
November seeking to re-settle in a third country. Toloui
told us she met December 13 with a UNHCR representative, who
indicated that her application for refugee status appeared
strong. She is waiting for further instruction from UNHCR on
how to proceed with her case. She would like to emigrate to
the U.S. with her 13-year-old daughter, Sima, and 6-year-old
son, Nima, who are with her in Turkey. Her husband, Pourya
Hajizadeh, remains in Iran, but would try to join them. If
she is unable to move to the U.S., she said she wants to go
"anywhere but Iran."


3. (C) Toloui said Iranian intelligence officials arrested
her in Sanandaj, in Iranian Kurdistan, on August 2, during a
period of tense conflict following the July 9 death of
Kurdish activist Seyyed Kamal Seyyed ader, known as Qaderi
or Shavaneh. Qaderi's brother claimed security forces shot
and killed Qaderi, then dragged his body from the back of a
military vehicle. The death sparked a number of protests
that led to violent confrontations between Kurds and security
forces. Toloui said security forces killed Qaderi because he
spoke in support of the democratic process in Iraq, and had
encouraged people in his home town of Mahabat to celebrate
the selection of Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as Iraqi
president.


4. (C) Toloui said Iranian authorities tried to force her to
confess that she was the ringleader of the protests, and to
implicate other supposed organizers. She said this is not
true -- she was only a participant. She averred that
authorities sought to use the protests as an excuse to punish
her for her longstanding efforts to promote Kurdish and
women's rights. She said the Iranian government often
silences dissenting views by falsely accusing political
activists of anti-state violence.


5. (C) For the first six days of her confinement, her captors
interrogated Toloui intensely, but did not torture her. She
counted 10 separate interrogators the first night between
10:30 p.m. and 4 a.m. The questioning continued
uninterrupted for up to 5 hours at a session. After six days
of failing to extract a confession, her interrogators adopted
harsher measures. They tortured her periodically over the
next 17 days. Between torture sessions they kept her in
solitary confinement. They tried to intimidate her by
telling her, "You're just a Kurd. No one cares what happens
to you." Toloui began to describe to us the abuse she
endured. But after telling us her captors repeatedly whipped
her, she said the subject was still too emotionally painful
to discuss further.


6. (U) Though she never confessed, authorities released her
on bail. To her surprise, she was able to attain a visa to
travel to Thailand to attend an October conference sponsored
by the Association for Women's Rights in Development. After
attending the conference, she traveled from Bangkok to
Ankara, arriving November 1. In Iran, meanwhile, the case
against her for "endangering national security" continues --
on the day we met she was scheduled to appear in court.
WILSON