The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Salar Ghazali and Saman Ghazali, two brothers from Mahabad who are both civil rights activists, were each sentenced to a total of three and a half years in prison by the branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Mahabad on the charges of “acting against national security through membership in a Kurdish opposition party” and “propaganda against the state”.
The trial of the two brothers was held in mid-December at the branch 1 of the Mahabad Revolutionary Court, headed by Judge Javad Gholami, without the right to have a lawyer. The sentence was served on them in Mahabad Prison yesterday.
The two civil rights activists were sentenced to prison even though, as previously reported by KHRN, their temporary detention had been reduced to a 100 million tomans bail. However, the Mahabad Intelligence Office has prevented their release.
Salar Ghazali and Saman Ghazali were arrested by security forces on September 17 and transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Orumiyeh. They were transferred to Mahabad Prison after 75 days.
The two brothers were deprived of the right to contact and visit their families while being held in the detention centre. Saman Ghazali is a final year student of Master of Sociology at Boroujerd University and Salar Ghazali is a graduate of Razi University of Kermanshah.
