Kurdish writer Mozhgan Kavousi has been temporarily released after 104 days in detention from Qaem Shahr prison in Iran’s northern Mazandaran province, on a bail of 3 billion Tomans – nearly 75,000 USD.
On 29 December 2022, the Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sari, Mazandaran province, sentenced her to a total of five years and two months in jail for charges that include alleged actions to “disrupt national security”.
After her lawyers appealed against the ruling, the case was referred to the Mazandaran Court of Appeals.
According to the verdict issued by the court, the writer was sentenced to 39 months for “inciting people to war and killing to disrupt national security”, eight months in prison for “propaganda against the state” and 15 months and one day in jail for “insulting the supreme leader”.
However, according to Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran, only the heaviest punishment, that is, 39 months of imprisonment, is applicable from a total of 59 months and one day of imprisonment.
The charges that the Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sari brought against Kavousi at the first hearing of the case on 20 December 2022 were “spreading corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz), “insulting the supreme leader of Iran”, “spreading lies”, “propaganda against the state”, “inciting people to war and killing to disrupt national security” and “collaborating with hostile countries”.
She is originally from the town of Nowshahr, Mazandaran province, where she was arrested at her family home on 22 September 2022. She was then taken to pre-trial detention at the Tonekabon Prison after initial interrogation at the detention centre of the Ministry of Intelligence in Sari.
Kavousi is a former political prisoner released from the Kachouei Prison of Karaj, northern Iran, in January 2022 after she spent nearly two years in jail.
