The Public and Revolutionary Court of Bukan has sentenced Simko Maroufi, a cultural activist and member of the Welat Environmental Association, to one year in prison for “propaganda against the state”, sources told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
Maroufi was arrested by security forces on 8 March and was released on bail a month later.
The Kurdish activist was also previously arrested on 15 October 2019 along with a number of other civil rights activists during a rally by a group of residents of Bukan, protesting against the Turkish army’s offensive on the town of Sere Kaniye (also Ras al-Ayn) in Syrian Kurdistan. Maroufi was released on bail, after being interrogated.
Two months later, in December 2019, Branch 101 of the Criminal Court of Bukan sentenced Maroufi to two years in prison on charges of “disrupting public order”. The activist was then arrested on 3 February 2020 and transferred to Bukan Central Prison. In late November 2020, he was released from prison on parole.
