Saman Rasoulpour

After a disappearance of three weeks, cleric Ayub Ganji, the congregational prayer leader ‎of Ghaba mosque in the Kurdish town of Sanandaj was “found” last Friday. But he seems ‎to have lost all his memory because of the torture he was subjected to, and is now ‎suffering from hallucinations.
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This 30-year old cleric was dropped off an unidentified vehicle in front of a mosque on ‎Friday in Sanandaj and immediately collapsed. He appeared shocked, indicating a loss of ‎weight. Ghaba mosque goers took him to the mosque, and seeing his condition, ‎transferred him to a hospital.‎

Signs of torture, beating and injections appeared on different parts of his body. His ‎condition was so bad that he could not even recognize his own wife and child. He was ‎suffering from hallucinations and repeatedly uttered words such as “electricity”, “they ‎have come”, “don’t beat me”, and “no, no, no”. Security officials have strongly denied ‎arresting him but nobody else until now has claimed responsibility for his disappearance.‎

A civic activist told Rooz “Mr. Ganji has not said anything since his return, and he is ‎incapable of recognizing his close relatives. The only words he utters are ‘electricity’, ‎‎“don’t hit me’, etc, indicating that his captors had subjected him to severe torture. There ‎were also signs of two injection spots on his feet. While it is not clear who his captors ‎were or what specifically they subjected this cleric to, Ganji appears to be completely ‎brain-washed. His general health condition is not good and he is planned to be transferred ‎to Tehran for medical examinations.‎

Followers of the cleric had announced his disappearance about three weeks ago and they ‎had warned a day before his appearance that they would launch a wide protest campaign ‎if Ganji was not released immediately.‎

Ganji disappeared after a criticizing talk he delivered at a Friday congregational prayer ‎about three weeks ago. In his talk he criticized the disqualification of the large number of ‎candidates to the upcoming Majlis elections, the suspicious death of Ibrahim Lotfelahi ‎while in detention, and the launching of Alghadir Foundation in Kurdistan, which ‎reportedly advocates and propagates the Mahdaviyat brand of Islam among Sunni ‎Muslims in Sanandaj. [Security agencies in Iran have in the past claimed the arrest of ‎Mahdaviat members some of whom were tried and sentenced to death and prison terms in ‎‎2001.‎