Branch 36 of Tehran’s Appeals Court recently upheld the five-year prison sentence of Kurdish artist Sasan Chamanara.
The artist had previously been sentenced to prison by Branch 29 of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court.
On 12 June, he was summoned to serve the sentence by Branch One of the Enforcement of Judgements Office of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Tehran’s 33rd district.
Chamanara, who is from Ilam and lives in Tehran, was arrested on 7 October 2022 during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in Tehran.
He was interrogated for 21 days in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Detention Centre and for 18 days by the Ministry of Intelligence in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, before being transferred to the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary.
In January, Branch 29 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced him to five years in prison on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security”.
On 24 January, the artist was released from the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary on bail of 9 billion Iranian rials – nearly 18,000 USD.
Chamanara was severely beaten by security interrogators during his detention and was denied access to a lawyer until the first court session.