Yadollah Motaei, a Kurdish karate coach in Dehgolan, Kurdistan Province, has been banned from all sporting activities after a 31-year career.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that, in recent days, Motaei was summoned by the security department of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth of Kurdistan Province.
The head of the security department informed him that he was prohibited from engaging in any sporting activity.
On 14 August, the department also intervened in a ceremony held in Dehgolan to honour sports champions and veterans, removing Motaei’s name from the list of veterans and preventing him from attending.
Motaei has been active as a karate athlete and coach since 1995.
He was arrested in Dehgolan during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising and released on bail several weeks later from the Shahramfar Detention Centre of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organisation in Sanandaj, the provincial capital.
He was subsequently given a five-year suspended prison sentence.
