Sunni Kurdish cleric Saber Khoda-Moradi has been sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Special Clerical Court in Hamadan, Hamadan Province, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.

Khoda-Moradi, an imam at a mosque in the village of Qukh in Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, was informed by telephone in recent days that he had been sentenced on charges of “propaganda against the state”.

The sentence follows an earlier summons in July 2023, when Khoda-Moradi appeared before the Special Clerical Court in Hamadan.

In May 2023, Khoda-Moradi was also summoned by the same court for supporting the anti-government Women, Life, Freedom uprising, and sentenced to 74 lashes and seven and a half months’ imprisonment suspended for three years on charges of “disturbing public opinion” and “propaganda against the state”.