To Whom It May Concern:
URGENT:
Re: Deportation of Pezhman Piran, Alireza Ranjbar, Seyed Ali Alemzadeh, Abolfazl Ajorlou, and Mojtaba Vatanpour
It has come to our attention that Pezhman Piran, an UN-recognised refugee in Van, Turkey, has been detained by the Turkish police and has been or is in the process of being deported back to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Mr. Piran is an Iranian-Kurd political activist whose history with the Iranian regime has made him a vulnerable target of persecution and violence. The merits of Mr. Piran’s background have already been recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Van, Turkey, hence their extension of refugee status to him.
It is an obscene violation of human rights and international law if the Turkish authorities deport an individual who has been recognised as politically vulnerable by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Mr. Piran faces certain torture and/or execution should the deportation order be carried out. The Turkish state will certainly have Mr. Piran’s blood on its hands if he is transferred over to Iranian authorities.
We believe that Mr. Piran was detained along with four other individuals who also face deportation. In addition to Mr. Piran, two other detained individuals are UN-recognised refugees. We do not know the whereabouts of Mr. Piran or the others, but have been informed by assets on the ground in Van that he has been detained and is being deported. We enjoin your organisation to intervene on behalf of Mr. Piran and the four other individuals, whose names are: Alireza Ranjbar, Seyed Ali Alemzadeh, Abolfazl Ajerlou, Mojtaba Vatanpour.
We are absolutely certain that the abovementioned individuals will either be executed or subjected to the worst torture should they be transferred over to the Iranian authorities.
