Mansur Arvand was a young Kurd and a well-known athlete from the [city of] Mahabad. He had a high school diploma, was married with two children, ages 16 and 7, and he owed the “Javanmardan” bodybuilding club.

Mansur Arvand was a young Kurd and a well-known athlete from the [city of] Mahabad. He had a high school diploma, was married with two children, ages 16 and 7, and he owed the “Javanmardan” bodybuilding club.


Prior to his arrest, he was summoned and questioned on two occasions by Information Administration agents, including the time in March-April 2011 when he had been summoned to Mahabad Information News Headquarters and questioned about why he was allowing young people to use his sports facility without expecting financial gain. He had also been chastised for playing Kurdish music at the club, wearing Kurdish clothes, and objecting to and confronting people who distributed drugs among the youth.
At midnight of June 11, 2011, Mr. Arvand and his brother were arrested at their home in Mahabad by a large number of armed Information Ministry agents. During the four months he spent in solitary confinement cells of the Information Administration Detention Centers, he was deprived of the right to contact his family and access to an attorney.
Mahabad Islamic Revolutionary Court Branch One issued Mr. Arvand’s death sentence on June 12, 2012, the same day the trial took place. The decision was sent to Supreme Court Branch 14 for approval. On November 29, 2014, Orumieh Prison’s Information Protection official verbally informed Mr. Arvand that his death sentence had been reduced to life imprisonment. His court-appointed lawyer had also been informed that his client’s death sentence had been revoked and that he would soon receive notification. (ABF Interview)
On May 7, 2015, concurrent with popular demonstrations protesting Mahabad’s Tara Hotel incident, Mr. Mansur Arvand was taken from Mahabad Prison to an undisclosed location by Information agents and was executed in secret.
See his story on :Omid Memorial":