Ankara, Turkey – The Hengaf Human Rights Organization reports that three-year-old girls, Rouzdeh Saadoun and Safiyeh Tursu, are at risk of being forcibly separated from their Kurdish mothers. They will be transferred to the care of the social welfare department, while their mothers remain detained in Qarchak and Evin prisons in Tehran.
Rouzdeh Saadoun and Safieh Torsu, along with their husbands Fasih Karatash and Mazloum Arli, are serving five-year prison sentences each. The verdict was handed down by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Salavati, on charges of membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The combined sentences for the four couples amount to twenty years.
The rights group said prison officials informed the families that children could not remain with their mothers after turning two. The two girls are now three years old, meaning they will be forcibly transferred to social services.
This comes at a time when the families of the four prisoners, who reside in Turkish Kurdistan, have been unable to visit or receive their children. There are serious concerns about the blatant violation of the rights of children and families in Iranian prisons.
The four family members were arrested on August 23, 1403 AH (1983 CE) while traveling to Armenia. They were transferred to several detention centers before being taken to Evin and Qarchak prisons.
