Mostafa Hamdi, a media activist and administrator of the Porseman Telegram group, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison and 70 lashes by Branch 105 of the Second Criminal Court in Saqqez, Kurdistan Province.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that the court convicted the Kurdish activist on charges of “disturbing public order” by participating in alleged “illegal gatherings”.
Hamdi’s trial took place on 12 October and he was informed of the verdict on him on 19 October.
Local sources claim that pressure from the governor of Saqqez, Jafar Tavan, played a role in Hamdi’s arrest and trial.
This is not Hamdi’s first encounter with the Iranian authorities. In September this year, the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Saqqez sentenced him to three months in prison for “propaganda against the state” by posting content on social media, but the sentence was commuted to a fine of 70 million rials in accordance with the law on reducing sentences.
Hamedi was previously arrested without a warrant on 7 April at the Milad Hall in Saqqez and taken to the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province.
A few days later, he was transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Baneh, Kurdistan Province, and was provisionally released on 11 May on bail of four billion rials (nearly 6,000 USD).
Previously, in August 2021, Hamdi was sentenced to two years in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Saqqez on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the founder and leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. However, the sentence was overturned following his appeal, and he was acquitted by a provincial court.
The activist has been summoned and interrogated by the security authorities on several occasions in recent years.
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