Turkish researcher Shayan Houshyar sentenced to more than 3 years in prison

Hengaw – Wednesday, May 27, 2026

The Iranian Judiciary has sentenced Shayan Houshyar, a Turkish researcher, civil activist, and PhD student in Iranian history, to 3 years and 8 months in prison in Urmia. The charges against him stem solely from expressing academic views and criticizing ethnic hate speech.

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Branch One of the Urmia Revolutionary Court recently issued the prison sentence against Houshyar. The ruling has been formally communicated to his lawyer, Massoud Shamsnejad, who is expected to file an appeal in the coming days.

According to his attorney, one of the main charges brought against Houshyar was “propaganda against the state.” Shamsnejad stated that the verdict was based on his client’s “political analysis, criticism of official conduct, and the expression of independent academic views.”

Houshyar, a researcher from Urmia and a PhD candidate in Iranian history at the Tehran branch of Islamic Azad University, was arrested by security forces on October 14, 2025, and transferred to Urmia Central Prison. He was later released temporarily on bail pending the completion of judicial proceedings.

The case against the Turkish researcher was opened after he published a note condemning a wave of insults and hate slogans directed at Kurds in Urmia’s Bakri Stadium. In the statement, Houshyar stressed that “no nation is dignified through the denial of another” and defended the rights of Kurds to culture, celebration, and dignified presence in their own homeland. He also emphasized the importance of preserving calm and peaceful coexistence between Kurdish and Turkish residents of Urmia.