Amanj Mostafapour goes on hunger strike in Mahabad Prison

Hengaw: Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Amanj (Yasin) Mostafapour, a Kurdish political prisoner, has gone on a dry hunger strike in protest against his situation in prison. He is one of the detainees from the "Jin, Jiyan, Azadî" (Woman, Life, Freedom) movement in Mahabad.  

According to a report received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Amanj Mostafapour, a 26-year-old political prisoner from Mahabad, has been on hunger strike since Friday, February 21, 2025. He is currently incarcerated in the central prison of Mahabad and has served one year of his sentence.  

A source close to his family confirmed that he has taken this action in protest against the pressures and obstructions imposed by the IRGC Intelligence Organization, which have violated his fundamental rights.  

In September 2023, Branch 101 of the Second Criminal Court of Mahabad, presided over by Sajjad Dehghanzadeh, sentenced Amanj Mostafapour to five years in prison for "looting and destroying property," one and a half years for "destruction of property," two years for "insubordination to officers," and one year for "disrupting public order," amounting to a total of nine years and six months in prison.  

Under the law of sentence aggregation, the highest penalty applicable to him was five years of discretionary imprisonment.  

Additionally, he was sentenced to two years of discretionary imprisonment by the Mahabad Revolutionary Court for charges in a separate case.  

On Monday, February 26, 2024, Amanj Mostafapour was arrested and transferred to Mahabad Central Prison to serve his sentence.  

It is worth noting that he was abducted by Mahabad Intelligence Department forces in late December 2022, during the "Jin, Jiyan, Azadî" movement, and transferred to the detention center of the intelligence department. He was held in custody for a long time without access to a lawyer or in-person visits before being temporarily released on bail until the end of his trial proceedings.