Mahabad court sentences two Kurdish men to one year in prison

Hengaw – Monday, September 22, 2025

Omid Rash and Soroush Yousefzadeh, Kurdish residents of Mahabad, have each been sentenced by the Iranian judiciary to six months in prison.

According to reports obtained by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Branch 1 of the Mahabad Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Sayyami, recently convicted Rash, from the village of Koseh Kahriz in Mahabad, and Yousefzadeh, from the same city, on charges of “propaganda against the state,” handing each a six-month sentence.

Security forces arrested Omid Rash on June 21, 2025, along with two fellow villagers, Asaad Rasoulzadeh and Noureddin Dudkanlou, and transferred them to an undisclosed location.

Soroush Yousefzadeh was detained at dawn on June 9, 2025, during a raid on his family home in Mahabad. According to informed sources, security agents confiscated some of his personal belongings as well as the mobile phones of his father and brother.

All the detainees were released temporarily after a month of interrogation on heavy bail.