Arrest
Sina Dashmir, a Kurdish civilian from the village of Gazgasak in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province, was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence in the city on 18 January 2023 during the anti-government Women, Life, Freedom uprising.
He was arrested without a warrant and taken to a security detention facility in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.
After several weeks, he was moved from the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh to Naqadeh Prison, and provisionally released on bail of 4 billion tomans on 14 February 2023.
During his detention, he was denied the right to meet with his family and access legal counsel.
Judicial Process
In May 2023, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, presided over by Judge Amir Ojaghlou, sentenced him to 40 months in prison on charges of “membership in anti-regime groups” through membership of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI). Additionally, he was sentenced to 35 months in prison on charges of “slogan writing and actions against national security”.
In a separate case, Branch 102 of the Criminal Court Two of Piranshahr, presided over by Judge Reza Ghahremani Saatlou, convicted him of “disrupting public order and peace”.
His sentence included a fine of 50 million rials payable to the state treasury of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in lieu of three months’ imprisonment, as well as 40 lashes to be administered in an enclosed space, away from public view, and excluding his head, face, and private parts.
Current Status
On 21 January 2024, Dashmir was sent to Naqadeh Prison to serve his sentence. He was released under electronic surveillance with an ankle tag on 3 March 2025.
Additional Information
In July 2024, security forces installed the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the entrance of Dashmir’s family home on orders from Mojtaba Mahmoudi Ghalaghachi, the Public Prosecutor of Piranshahr.
Notes:
1. Women, Life, Freedom Uprising: Jina Amini (Mahsa Amini), a 21-year-old Kurdish woman from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, was arrested on a street in Tehran on 13 September 2022 by the morality police because of the way she was dressed. Shortly after her arrest, she was transferred to Kasra Hospital in Tehran with head injuries and symptoms of brain death, and passed away three days later on 16 September 2022. The government’s killing of Jina sparked unprecedented anti-government protests, which began with a large turnout at her funeral at Aichi Cemetery in Saqqez and quickly spread to many cities across Iran. These widespread protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which lasted for several months, resulted in at least 527 protesters being killed and thousands injured and arrested. The protests are known for their central slogan of “Women, Life, Freedom” (Kurdish: Jin, Jiyan, Azadi).
2. 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.”
3. 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.
4. Article 610 of the Islamic Penal Code: “If two or more individuals gather and conspire to commit crimes against the internal or external security of the country or to facilitate the means for committing such crimes, they shall be sentenced to two to five years’ imprisonment, unless they are considered mohareb (those who commit enmity against God).”
5. Article 618 of the Islamic Penal Code: “Anyone who, through uproar, commotion, unconventional behaviour, or harassment of individuals, disrupts public order and peace or prevents people from engaging in their work, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of three months to one year and up to 74 lashes.”
