Edris Menbari, a Kurdish language teacher and board member of the Nozhin Socio-Cultural Association in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, has been sent to Sanandaj Central Prison to serve a one-year sentence.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Menbari was summoned by the Sanandaj Court’s Enforcement of Judgements Office on 4 November to begin serving his sentence.
He presented himself at the city’s central prison on 8 November, accompanied by his family and several members of the Nozhin Socio-Cultural Association.
Menbari was first arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents in Sanandaj on 18 December 2022. After 43 days in detention, he was temporarily released on bail set at 10 billion rials (almost 10,000 USD).
In November 2023, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj sentenced him to 10 years in prison on charges of “forming groups and associations with the intention of disrupting national security”.
The Kurdistan Province Court of Appeal later overturned the ruling and referred the case for retrial to a parallel court.
Following a retrial, the same court, presided over by Judge Karami, sentenced Menbari to one year in prison and an additional one-year suspended term for a three-year period on the same charge.
Separately, in October 2023, Branch 106 of the Criminal Court Two of Sanandaj, presided over by Judge Bahman Omidzadeh, sentenced the activist to one year of exile imprisonment and 40 lashes for “disturbing public order”.
