Detention of Sheikh Zahid Shahabi Extended by One Month

The detention order for Sheikh Zahid Shahabi, brother of the late Sheikh Azad Shahabi, has been extended by the Investigative Branch of the Saqqez Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office for another month.

According to a reliable source, Sheikh Zahid Shahabi has not been granted access to a lawyer and has been denied visitation with his family since his arrest.

He has reportedly been transferred  to a security detention facility in Sanandaj for interrogation.

At 5:00 a.m. on Monday, March 24, 2025, agents of the Saqqez Intelligence Office violently raided the “Path of Freedom” (Rāh-e Āzādī) dervish lodge and arrested Sheikh Zahid Shahabi without a judicial warrant. During the raid, family members were reportedly disrespected, and agents confiscated his mobile phone and personal belongings.

On Friday, March 14, 2025, during the opening of the Nowruz celebration on Mount Jaqal, Sheikh Zahid Shahabi addressed the public with a message renewing a vow to the martyrs, calling for unity and freedom, and chanted “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” along with the crowd.

The ceremonial fire at this Nowruz event was lit by Sheikh Zahid himself, the brother of Sheikh Azad Shahabi.

Earlier, on the evening of Monday, October 15, 2024, security forces raided the “Path of Freedom” lodge in Saqqez after the word “martyr” and a Kurdish poem were engraved on Sheikh Azad Shahabi’s gravestone. During the raid, family members and dervishes were assaulted.

On July 18, 2024, Sheikh Azad Shahabi , a prominent Sufi figure in Kurdistan, was assassinated at his lodge in Saqqez along with two of his companions, Peyman Mohammadi and Parviz Rahimpanah, by armed assailants.

Kurdpa later published a special interview titled “Why the Islamic Republic Needed the Physical Elimination of Sheikh Azad Shahabi?”, featuring a close confidant of Sheikh Azad, who discussed broader state-led scenarios aiming to incite division and unrest in the wake of the cleric’s death.