Kurdish activists Mostafa Bagheri Ashna and Khalil Asadi Bouzhani, who had handed themselves over to Dizelabad Prison of Kermanshah on 30 January 2021 to serve the remaining of their sentences, have been released, sources told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
Mostafa Bagheri Ashna has been released from Dizelabad Prison in Kermanshah today, on 23 February, after serving his sentence. While, Khalil Asadi Bouzhani was released last week.
The two Kurdish activists, along with Seyyed Ardeshir Mousavi, had handed themselves over to Dizelabad Prison in Kermanshah on 30 January 2021 to serve the remainder of their sentences.
Confirming the news to the KHRN, Mostafa Ahmadian the lawyer of these activists, said: “Given that my clients had previously spent several months in pre-trial detention, they were released from prison as their previous detention has been taken into account as part of their sentences.”
He also said Seyyed Ardeshir Mousavi should also be released from Kermanshah prison by next week.
Seyyed Ardeshir Mousavi and Mostafa Bagheri Ashna, along with two other Kurdish activists, Shahriyar Tahmasebi and Arsalan Hedayati, were arrested on 5 July 2018, in a coordinated action by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). They were released on bail after two months of detention in difficult conditions and solitary confinement, in the detention centre of this intelligence agency in Kermanshah.
Later, Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Kermanshah, presided by Shahrokh Moradi, sentenced each of these activists to nine months in prison on charges of “propaganda activities against the state”. The provincial Court of Appeals reduced the sentence to four months imprisonment following an appeal by Mostafa Ahmadian, the defendants’ lawyer.
Separately, Khalil Asadi Bouzhani was arrested on 20 November 2019 at his family home in Kermanshah at the same time as the nationwide protests, and was released on bail after three months. He was severely tortured physically and mentally during his detention and lost 15 kilograms.
On 10 February 2020, Branch 3 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Kermanshah, presided by Judge Asadi, sentenced Asadi Bouzhani to three and a half years in prison on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” and to three years on charges of “membership in groups opposing the state”. According to Article 134 of the Iranian Islamic Penal Code, three and a half years of this sentence was enforceable.
In an interview with the KHRN, Mostafa Ahmadian, Asadi Bouzhani’s lawyer, had said, activities such as “attending the November protests and sending news and pictures to other people” were examples of the charges his client faced.
Following the lawyer’s appeal against the verdicts, the provincial Court of Appeals sentenced Asadi Bouzhani to a reduced sentence of three months in prison.
