Iran has released on bail Kurdish civilians Nahid Kamangar, Sherko Menbari, Kaveh Menbari, Saryad Menbari, Payam Menbari, and Behzad Mohammadi on 28 August and Nezhad Azizi on 26 August from Sanandaj Central Prison.
Nahid Kamangar has been released on a bail of 500 million Iranian Tomans – nearly 20,000 USD – while Sherko Menbari, Saryad Menbari, Kaveh Menbari, Payam Menbari, and Behzad Mohammadi have been released on a bail of 200 million Iranian Tomans – nearly 8,000 USD.
These civilians were denied communication with family and the right to a lawyer during their detentions.
On 6 July, the Ministry of Intelligence in Kamyaran, Kurdistan province, summoned Kamangar and sent her to solitary confinement in the women’s ward of the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj.
During this period, security interrogators pressured her to make a forced confession against her father, Hossein Kamangar, who was sentenced in March 2021 to 15 years in prison on “armed insurrection” charges through “membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)”.
Nahid Kamangar is a student of Kurdish language and literature at the University of Kurdistan in Sanandaj.
Security forces arrested Kaveh Menbari and Sherko Menbari on 29 April, Payam Menbari and Saryad Menbari on 1 May, and took them to the detention centre of the intelligence ministry in Sanandaj.
Separately, they arrested Behzad Mohammadi and Nezhad Azizi on 5 July in Sanandaj.
The six Kurdish civilians have been accused of supporting the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI).
