Sunni Kurdish clerics Loghman Amini and Ebrahim Karimi Nanaleh were put on trial on 7 June by the Special Clerical Court in Hamadan, north-west Iran.
The clerics were on trial on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “disturbing public opinion” for voicing support for the recent anti-government protests across the country.
They were tried without the right to a lawyer, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
Amini is the imam of the Chahar Yar-e Nabi mosque in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, and Karimi Nanaleh is the imam of the Nanaleh village mosque in Sanandaj.
Earlier, on 30 January, security forces arrested the two clerics on the road from Sanandaj to Marivan, Kurdistan province.
After arresting Karimi Nanaleh, security forces raided and searched his family’s home in the village of Nanaleh.
The two clerics were released on bail on 22 February.
The summoning, arrest and sentencing to prison and flogging of Sunni Kurdish clerics has intensified in recent months following the widespread support given by some Sunni Kurdish clerics to anti-government protests and popular demands.
Since late March, the Special Clerical Court of Hamadan has sentenced at least six Sunni Kurdish clerics, Hossein Ali-Moradi, Saber Khoda-Moradi, Arman Sadeghi and Seyyed Jalal Akbari, to suspended prison sentences, lashes and the revocation of clerical status for speaking out in support of anti-government protests in Sanandaj, Saqqez, Dehgolan and Sarvabad.
