Kurdish women activists Baran Saedi and Leyla Pashaei have been charged with new offences and had their bail amount increased by Branch Two of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province.
The pair were initially arrested for their involvement in organising an International Women’s Day event in the city.
On 26 May, they appeared before the prosecutor’s office in Sanandaj, where they were formally accused of “forming an unlawful group” and “propaganda against the state”.
The presiding prosecutor, Judge Ramazani, also increased their bail by one billion rials (nearly 1,250 USD).
Saedi and Pashaei were arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents on 9 and 10 March, shortly after the 8 March event.
They were held at the Ministry’s detention centre in Sanandaj, where they were subjected to 10 days of threats and interrogation aimed at coercing forced confessions.
They were then transferred to the quarantine ward of Sanandaj’s Juvenile Detention Centre, and were released on bail on 25 March.
At that time, they had been charged with “assembly and collusion with the intent to disrupt national security”.
Saedi and Pashaei were previously arrested during the anti-government Women, Life, Freedom uprising in 2022.
