A Kurdish political prisoner was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Sakineh Parvaneh, a Kurdish political prisoner from Khorasan who is being held in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison by the Tehran Revolutionary Court.

Payam Derfashan, Sakineh Parvaneh's defense lawyer, confirmed this news and published his client's court verdict on Monday, June 25, writing on his Twitter account that the verdict was not final and could be appealed.

According to the issued verdict, Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced this political prisoner to 5 years in prison, including the time he had been previously detained, on charges of "membership in anti-regime groups called Komaleh and Demokrat with the aim of disrupting the country's security." As an additional punishment, he was also banned from membership in political groups and associations for 2 years.

According to news published by human rights media, late last year, Ms. Parvaneh applied to the Iranian consulate in Erbil, Iraq, to ​​be transferred to Iran. On February 8, after arriving at the Bashmaq border, she was arrested by security forces and transferred to Evin Detention Center in Tehran.

According to these reports and citing an informed source, Ms. Parvaneh was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin in April of this year after writing slogans in Evin Prison. After spending 4 days in solitary confinement, she was transferred to Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital in Shahr-e Ray and after 25 days, she was returned to Qarchak Prison in Varamin.

This is not the first time that a citizen has been sentenced to prison on charges of "membership in groups hostile to the regime." Earlier, a report announced that Saeed Sangar, who was arrested in September 2010 by the Urmia Intelligence Department and is currently in Ward 12 of the Urmia Central Prison, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in a new case on charges of "membership in groups hostile to the regime" by Branch 2 of the Urmia Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Ali Sheikhloo.

The US State Department has repeatedly condemned the Islamic Republic of Iran's violent actions against the people of Iran under various pretexts, as well as the repeated and persistent violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by agents of the regime.

Source: Voice of America