Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

Sohrab Rahmati, 44 year old criminal defense lawyer left Iran after having been summoned, interrogated, detained by the Sanandaj Intelligence office and the IRGC and has been living in Erbil, Iraq since 2004. In 2014, he joined the Iraqi Kurdistan Lawyers’ Union. He has also worked on high-profile murdered Kurdish activist cases, some of which drew attention because of the court cases and the conviction of agents carrying out the operations, and two cases of individuals whose extradition, which was requested by Iran, he prevented. 

In 2019, one of the individuals Rahmati had defended survived an assassination attempt in the vicinity of the Iranian Consulate in Erbil, when an assailant stabbed him. The individual shared information on social media about the fact that he and his lawyer, whom he named, had been threatened. Soon after, Rahmati started receiving phone calls pressing him to collaborate with the Iranian consulate in threatening phone calls, including from an individual introducing himself as Ali Abbasabadi, Head of the Iranian Consulate General in Erbil. To prove his identity, the latter told Rahmati that his father will be summoned by the Intelligence office in Orumieh and his father was in fact summoned to Orumieh. Threats including references to his address and his children’s schools followed his refusal and were transmitted through the immediate family members and through WhatsApp messages forcing him to change his place of residence. These threats caused tremendous stress and seriously disrupted Rahmati’s life and work. 

On November 15, 2023, Rahmati was attacked in Hana City, Erbil, but survived. An assailant had broken into his home and turned off the electricity, and shot  Ramati two times in the stomach. He underwent surgery and is now in Iraqi Kurdistan, under the protection of the security forces of the Iraq Kurdistan Regional Government. He has thereafter continued to receive threats via Telegram.

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