Kazhal Watanpour, a defender of women's and children's rights, was summoned to Ilam to carry out her prison term
Kazhal Watanpour, a law student pursuing her master's degree and an advocate for women's and children's rights who was detained and given a prison ...
Hengaw: January 25, 2023
Kazhal Watanpour, a law student pursuing her master's degree and an advocate for women's and children's rights who was detained and given a prison sentence during the Ilam popular resistance, has been called to execute her prison terms.
According to Hengaw Kazhal Watanpour, a women's and children's rights activist from Gilan-e Gharb in Kermanshah province, who was brutally arrested by security forces on September 21, 2022, during the Ilam people's resistance, due to filing a case against her in the criminal and revolutionary courts, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
The Criminal and Revolutionary Court of Ilam sentenced her to two years and six months in prison for charges such as disturbing public order and peace, propaganda and activity against the system, collusion against internal security, and cooperation with enemy networks. Finally, in the appeals court, she was sentenced to one year of imprisonment and six months of probation, a two-year ban on leaving the country, and cancellation of her passport.
On her way back home, Kazhal Watanpour was stopped by plainclothes officers near the Children's Park library in Ilam and transported to one of the city's security detention centers. She was tortured physically and mentally by the IRGC intelligence agents at Ilam while she was being held, forcing her to confess before she was eventually moved to the women's ward of Ilam Central Prison.
According to an informed source, Kazhal Watanpour was denied meeting with her family during the whole period of her detention, as well as having a lawyer in the hearing session at the Islamic Revolutionary Court.
She is a master's student of international law who has recently given free legal counsel to women, particularly injured women and children, as well as authored articles about legal knowledge of women's rights issues for local publications.
Kazhal Watanpour had no guarantees of a fair trial, even by internal Iranian regulations, including access to a lawyer.
