Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has been informed that a Kurdish photographer Mehdi Tavakoli has been summoned by the Sanandaj Intelligence office and interrogated about his activities. He has also been told that he was not currently allowed to leave the city of Sanandaj.
Mehdi Tavakoli was arrested by security forces in Sanandaj on October 12, 2016, and was transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison after being interrogated for 35 times at the Intelligence Office. He was later released on bail, and he was sentenced by Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj to two years in prison on charges of “acting against national security” in July 2017. After serving his sentence, he was arrested again by security forces in November 2019 and released on bail a month later.
Tavakoli is a photography instructor at the Kurdistan Young Cinema Association. In recent years, he has held several photo exhibitions on the subject of “Shengal and Kobani in the Kurdistan Region” in Sanandaj.