Kurdish political prisoner Howram Mehrnavayi begins hunger strike in Bukan

Hengaw - Tuesday, May 13, 2025
 
Howram Mehrnavayi, a Kurdish political prisoner and one of the detainees of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom) movement, has launched a hunger strike at Bukan Central Prison to protest the rejection of his request for conditional release.
 
According to reports received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Mehrnavayi began his hunger strike on Monday, May 12, 2025, following the denial of parole.
 
Mehrnavayi was arrested- for the second time- on April 2, 2024, for “participating in Nowruz celebrations” in Bukan. His first arrest occurred during the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi protests on December 2, 2022. He was temporarily released on bail after that arrest.
 
In March 2023, Branch One of the Bukan Revolutionary Court sentenced him to 54 months in prison on charges of “collaboration with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan” during the city’s mass protests.
 
On April 9, 2023, Mehrnavayi was transferred to Bukan Central Prison to begin serving his sentence. He was later released under electronic surveillance but was eventually returned to prison.