Following the announcement of a new amnesty by the judiciary on the occasion of Nowruz(Newroz), two Kurdish political prisoners ‘Tawfiq Mahmoudi’ and ‘Shahram Farhadi’ were released from Sanandaj Central Prison on April 07.
Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has been informed that Tawfiq Mahmoudi was transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison in mid-November last year to serve his one-year sentence and Shahram Farhadi was also transferred to the same prison on January 21 to serve his two-year sentence.
Tawfiq Mahmoudi, a labour activist living in Sanandaj, was arrested by security forces on March 9, 2017, and released from prison in Sanandaj after 45 days on bail. He was sentenced to one year in prison by the Branch now of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj, presided over by Judge Saeedi, on May 11, 2019, on charges of “Cooperation with opposition parties.” After the verdict was upheld, he was summoned by Branch 4 of the Sanandaj Criminal Court in mid-November to serve his sentence.
Shahram Farhadi, a civil activist who has previously been active in environmental associations and campaigns related to collecting public donations to the people of Sanjar and Kermanshah earthquake victims, was arrested by security forces on November 16, 2017, when he was transferring public donations to Kermanshah earthquake victims.
He was released on a bail of 400 million tomans a month later. This Kurdish activist was sentenced to four years in prison by Branch 1 of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Saeedi but his sentence was later reduced to two years in prison by the court of appeal.At least 15 Kurdish political and prisoners of conscience have been released from prisons in Orumiyeh, Marivan, Rajai Shahr, Karaj and Sanandaj since late March following the amnesty of the judiciary of Iran.
