Former Kurdish political prisoner Bapir Barzeh was arrested on 13 January after being summoned to Branch One of the Enforcement of Judgements Office of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office and sent to Naqadeh Prison to serve a four-year sentence.
In May 2023, the Criminal Court Two of Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province, presided over by Judge Reza Ghahremani Saatlou, sentenced Barzeh to a total of one year in prison for “disturbing public order and peace by participating in riots” and “taking part in riots in line with the objectives of anti-state groups”.
In a separate case, Barzeh was sentenced to three years in prison in June 2023 by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Maku, West Azerbaijan Province, for “acting against national security” through his membership of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
Barzeh, from the village of Chianeh in Piranshahr, was arrested by security forces on 22 November 2022 and transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Orumiyeh.
After enduring a year of detention and interrogation, he was released on bail from Naqadeh Prison on 26 January 2023.
In recent years, Barzeh has been detained several times by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Piranshahr.
The former political prisoner was released from Naqadeh Prison in October 2021 after one year of imprisonment.
