Arrest
Mohammad Rasoulpour, a Kurdish civilian from the village of Kohneh Qaleh in Oshnavieh, West Azerbaijan Province, was arrested by security forces on 2 July 2024.
After 12 days in detention, he was temporarily released from Oshnavieh Prison on 14 July 2024 on bail of six billion rials (nearly 7,500 USD).
Judicial Process
In October 2024, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Oshnavieh, presided over by Judge Ali Ansari, sentenced Rasoulpour to two years’ imprisonment on charges of “acting against national security” through membership of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), and “propaganda against the state”.
This sentence was later reduced to one year and six months in prison under Article 442 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (submission to the verdict).
Current Status
On 16 November 2024, Rasoulpour was transferred to Oshnavieh Prison to serve his sentence.
Additional Information
In April 2025, a new case was opened against him in Oshnavieh Prison, and he was denied furlough for a period of six months.
Notes:
1. Article 499 of the Islamic Penal Code: “Anyone who joins one of the groups, associations, or branches of the associations mentioned in Article 498 shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of three months to five years, unless it is proven that they were unaware of the group’s objectives.”
2. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) was founded on 16 August 1945, with the aim of gaining autonomy for Iranian Kurdistan. According to the party’s charter, this political organisation, grounded in the “nationalist ideas and organizational structure of the Society for Kurdish Resurrection (KJK) and with a realistic and contemporary approach”, emerged as a modern entity in the political arena. KJK was the founder of the Republic of Kurdistan (22 January 1946 – 15 December 1946) in Mahabad. The republic lasted only 11 months, ending with an attack by the Iranian army, which executed its leaders, including Qazi Muhammad, the party leader and President of Kurdistan.
PDKI went through a period of armed struggle in the late 1960s, marked by internal party disputes, and ultimately, re-emerged as a political party on the eve of the 1979 revolution. Two of its leaders, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou and Sadegh Sharafkandi, were assassinated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in Europe in 1989 and 1992, respectively. In 2006, due to heightened internal conflicts, the party split into two factions: the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (HDK). These two factions eventually announced their reunification on 22 August 2022, after 15 years of separation.
The party has declared its ultimate goal as “the establishment of a democratic-socialist society” and its strategic slogan as “securing the rights of the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan within the framework of a federal democratic system in Iran”. The main headquarters of the PDKI is in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
3. Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code: “Anyone who engages in propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or in favour of groups and organisations opposing the state, in any manner, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of three months to one year.”
4. In cases where an individual accepts the verdict issued by the lower court and waives their right to appeal, they will be subject to the law of “submission to the verdict” and will receive a reduction in their sentence.
