Teenage Ahwazi killed in anti-regime protest

A 15-year-old Ahwazi Arab boy, Morteza Alsoweidi, was shot down during a demonstration against the actions of security services on 12 April. Alsoweidi was killed by Colonel Chabok Sawar as he joined local people in protesting against the destruction of Arab houses in the area where he lived with his family. He lived in the village of Al-Chenebah in the Sayed Mousa area. Extrajudicial killings of Ahwazi Arabs are at least as frequent as official executions of political prisoners. The bodies of many Ahwazi activists who have “disappeared” have been washed up in the Karoon.

In March 2013, the body of a 14 year old Ahwazi Arab resident of Hay al-Thawra (Dayereh) was found in the Karoon River. Pictures of Maitham Hamid Abidawi’s corpse showed that his hands were bound behind his back and his feet were tied together. A rescue team was deployed and allegedly found other bodies in the river. In April 2013, political activist Sayed Lafteh Mosavi of Sayed Karim, an area near Ahwaz City, was killed under torture while detained by the intelligence services. He had been arrested some months before and held without charge.

On July 21, 12-year-old Lilla Ghasan Hamid Obaidawi was killed and four members of her family were injured after security forces opened fire with live ammunition during raids on their village of Sariya in Khafajiya (Susangerd) on July 21. The reasons for the raid were unclear, but there were suggestions that it was conducted amid a clamp-down on the ownership of satellite dishes that can receive Arabic satellite channels. Sariya is also prone to drought due to falling water levels in the Kharkhe river, which has damaged local farming and provoked increasing hostility towards the government’s indifference.

Eight others were killed while in detention in 2012, including 47 year old Jamil Sowaidi (killed under interrogation while detained without charge) in November, Abbas Sawari (arrested from his home in Hay al-Thawra in April and found dead in the Karoon river in September), 37 year old Alireza Ghobaishawi (arrested in Khalafiya/Khalafabad and killed in detention in August), 19 year old Nasser Alboshokeh (arrested in Ahwaz on 21 January and died in hospital following extensive torture on 30 January), 21 year old Mohammad Kaabi (arrested on 21 January and died under torture on 2 February), Ghaiban Obaidawi from Hamidiyah, Mohammad Cheldawi from Ahwaz, Reza Maghamesi from Dezful and Mohammad Kaabi from Susa.[1]

Ahwaz News Agency