Kurdish language teacher, Haji Barzeh arrested for enforcement of prison sentence

Hengaw: Friday, December 20, 2024

Haji Barzeh, a civil activist and volunteer Kurdish language instructor at the "Bayan" Kurdish Language Institute, who was recently sentenced to five months of imprisonment, has been arrested to serve his sentence and transferred to Naghadeh Central Prison.

According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, Haji Barzeh, a civil, environmental activist and volunteer Kurdish language instructor, was summoned to the Sentence Enforcement Office in Piranshahr. Upon appearing, he was arrested and transferred to Naghadeh Central Prison to serve his five-month sentence.

Haji Barzeh had been sentenced by Branch 102 of the Piranshahr Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Amir Mohammadi, to five months of imprisonment on charges of "propaganda against the state" and fined 15 million tomans for "spreading false information."

It is noteworthy that Haji Barzeh, a civil and environmental activist from the village of Chianeh in Piranshahr, was previously arrested on May 8, 2024, following a raid by intelligence forces at his workplace without presenting an arrest warrant. He was subsequently transferred to the detention center of this security agency in Urmia.

After three weeks in detention, he was temporarily released on June 7, 2024, from Naghadeh Central Prison on bail of 2.5 billion tomans, pending the completion of judicial proceedings.