Kurdish political prisoner Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini has been released from Naqadeh Prison, northwestern Iran, on a heavy bail of 2 billion Tomans – nearly 80,000 USD – on 17 March.
Hosseini was arrested in January 2018 and released after more than four years of imprisonment.
In February 2022, Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad, in West Azerbaijan province, sentenced Hosseini to live eight years in internal exile in the Heris district of the northwestern province of East Azerbaijan.
It charged him with “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI).
The same court had previously sentenced the political prisoner to 40 years in prison and internal exile in Orumiyeh Central Prison on the same charge, which was overturned by the country’s Supreme Court.
Background
In 2017, Hosseini left the lines of the KDPI in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Later, he received a letter of safe conduct from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and returned to Iran.
A few months later, security forces arrested him on 9 January 2018.
In June 2021, Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad sentenced Hosseini to 40 years in prison and internal exile in Orumiyeh Central Prison.
It charged him with “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI).
In December 2021, after the political prisoner appealed against the ruling, the Supreme Court overturned the sentence due to lacking sufficient documents in the case and referred it again to Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad.
