Kurdish Sunni cleric Younes Nowkhah was released today on a bail of 500 million Tomans – nearly 12,000 USD – from Orumiyeh Central Prison, in north-west Iran.

Iranian security forces detained Nowkhah, who is a teacher at the Salahuddin Ayubi School of Religious Studies in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province, on 24 January.

The cleric was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison in the past few days after initial interrogations in the detention facility of the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan province.

The Special Clerical Court of Tabriz, East Azerbaijan province, had sentenced Nowkhah to a total of four years and six months in prison.

The clerical court had also permanently stripped him of his clerical status.