Kurdish Sunni cleric Barzan Maleki was taken into custody on 26 May after being summoned to the Speical Clerical Court of Hamadan.
Maleki, who is an imam and religious instructor at the Sheikheyn Grand Mosque in Sanandaj in the Kurdistan Province, was arrested after appearing in court in Hamadan and was subsequently transferred to a detention facility in the city, with bail set at 10 billion rials (nearly 12,500 USD).
The cleric was also summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence office in Sanandaj a day earlier, where he was questioned for two hours. During this visit, he was given a formal summons to appear at the Special Clerical Court in Hamadan.
This is not the first time the Kurdish Sunni cleric has been detained. On 28 January 2025, security forces intercepted Maleki and several of his religious students on the Sanandaj–Dehgolan road in Kurdistan Province while they were travelling towards Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan Province to attend a religious gathering. They were held for several hours before being released, which brought an end to their journey.
