A Civil Activist from Marivan Sentenced to Prison and Lashing

Varia Delangeez, a civil activist from Marivan, has been sentenced by a criminal court to endure 4 months of imprisonment and 24 lashes.

According to reports published by human rights news agencies, this civil activist from Marivan was sentenced on Saturday, April 12, by Branch 101 of the Criminal Court 2 of Marivan District to 4 months of imprisonment and 24 lashes on charges of “disturbing public order.”

Based on available information, Varia Delangeez was arrested in early October 2017 by security forces at a celebration held on the occasion of “the independence referendum of Iraqi Kurdistan” in Marivan District and was transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison. In mid-November of that year, he was temporarily released from prison by posting a 400 million toman bail pending the completion of legal proceedings.

It should be noted that this civil activist was arrested and imprisoned for “inciting people to express joy regarding the holding of the independence referendum of Iraqi Kurdistan.”

This is not the first time that a court in the Islamic Republic has sentenced a Kurdish citizen to sentences such as imprisonment. Previously, Voice of America reported in a statement that the 6-year prison sentence of Kamran Sakhtemanger, a labor activist from Sanandaj, which was issued in mid-December of last year by the First Branch of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court on charges of “cooperation with one of the Kurdish opposition parties to the Iranian government” and “propaganda against the system,” was upheld by the Court of Appeals of Kurdistan Province and communicated to him.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly and in various instances condemned violent conduct and widespread suppression of protesters, as well as repeated and continuous violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the regime governing that country.

Source: Voice of America