Kurdish woman writer and political prisoner Mozhgan Kavousi has been released today after serving about 21 months of her three-year prison sentence.
The political prisoner’s release from Kachouei Prison, in northern Karaj province, came after the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of northern Alborz province approved her temporary leave that would lead to her release from prison.
On 21 July, Kavousi was sent on temporary leave after contracting the coronavirus in Evin Prison in Tehran.
On 18 November 2019, the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested Kavousi at her family home in Nowshahr. She was released on bail after spending a month in detention.
The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Nowshahr initially sentenced her to 69 months in prison, but the Court of Appeals of Mazandaran province increased the sentence to 76 and a half months.
In a post on her Instagram account on 6 March 2020, the political prisoner wrote: “The court rejected my objection and defence through my lawyer Mr Mostafa Nili and agreed with the claims made by the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Nowshahr regarding the ruling of the court of the first instance.”
Kavousi said her imprisonment sentence for “propaganda against the state” increased from six months to seven and a half months.
She added that her imprisonment sentence for “inciting people to disrupt public order” was increased from 30 months to 36 months.
The political prisoner further stated that the verdict on charges of “membership in anti-state groups” remained 33 months.
She was arrested on 19 May 2020 in Nowshahr to serve a three-year prison sentence and was sent to the city prison but was transferred to Tehran’s Evin Prison a few days later.
On 6 October, Kavousi was transferred from Tehran’s Evin Prison to the detention centre of a police station in Karaj.
After three days of detention in harsh conditions, she was taken to Kachouei Prison of Karaj.
