Kurdish civilians Jalal Amini, Kazem Mam-Esmaeil, Hossein Ahmadi and Younes Mahmoudzadeh were taken to Bukan Prison in West Azerbaijan Province on 12 December to begin serving 30, 12, 26 and 30 month sentences respectively.
In January, Branch 101 of the Bukan Criminal Court convicted the four prisoners of “action against national security” through membership of a Kurdish opposition party and “propaganda against the state”.
The court sentenced Amini to three years and eight months in prison, Mam-Esmaeil to one year, Ahmadi to three years and Mahmoudzadeh to three years and eight months.
Following the prisoners’ appeals against the sentences, an appeals court commuted the sentences to 30 months, 12 months, 26 months and 30 months respectively.
The four civilians were arrested by security forces in Bukan in late mid-July and mid-August 2022, and were released on bail from Bukan prison after several weeks of interrogation.
