Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi were “arrested for acting against national security by taking part in attacks in Sanandaj and for being members of the militant group PJAK,” the official IRNA agency quoted the judge as saying.
The Kurdish rebel group PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), which is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighting the Turkish army, has been behind a string of deadly attacks in northwestern Iran in recent months.
Iran’s Kordestan, Kermanshah and West Azarbaijan provinces, which border northern Iraq, have substantial Kurdish populations. Sanandaj is the capital of Kordestan province.
The judge, whose name was not reported, said that the two women were using their activities as women’s rights activists as cover for their connections to the separatist militants.
“Counter-revolutionary groups use civic groups to carry out terrorist actions,” he said.
The two women were part of a nationwide campaign in Iran to collect a million signatures in favour of changing laws in the Islamic republic which are seen as discriminating against women.
“The arrest of these people has no link to the million signatures campaign. They were carrying out activities as part of the objectives of the PJAK group,” the judge said.
“People have also been arrested in Tehran for having carried out acts in favour of PJAK under the cover of the million signatures campaign,” he added, without giving further details.
The detention of Safarzadeh and Abdi had already triggered concern among Western rights groups but this was the first time their charges had been confirmed by the Iranian authorities.
