Iran has released on bail Kurdish political prisoners Faranak Jamshidi and Armin Esperlous in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, in recent days.
On 10 June, Jamshidi was imprisoned in the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, to serve a one-year prison sentence.
Esperlous, who is also Jamshidi’s husband, has been temporarily released on bail of 150 million Iranian Tomans – nearly 6,000 USD – after 20 days of detention.
On 28 June 2020, security forces arrested Jamshidi, a member of the Green Kurdistan Society, at her family home in Sanandaj.
She was released on 10 November on a bail of 200 million Iranian Tomans – nearly 8,000 USD – after four and a half months of detention.
Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj – presided over by Judge Saeidi – sentenced the activist to four years.
The court charged Jamshidi with “membership in a Kurdish opposition party”.
After her appeal against the ruling, Branch 4 of the Court of Appeals commuted her sentence to one year in prison.
Separately, on 29 September, security forces arrested Esperlous in Sanandaj.
On 19 October, he was jailed in Sanandaj Central Prison after his interrogation ended. On the same day, he was released on bail from the prison.
The environmental activist was charged with “propaganda against the state” and “membership in a Kurdish opposition party.”
Previously, on 21 February 2019, Esperlous was arrested during a mass arrest of environmental activists and members of the Kurdistan branch of the National Unity Party. He was released on bail two months later.
In March 2020, a court sentenced him to three months and one day in prison on charges of “acting against national security.”
