A Famous Kurdish cleric residing in Orumiye was sent to exile following the order issued by Special Courts for the Clergy (SCC) in Tabriz during the past few days.

“On Sept 19, 2017, Mamousta Reza Abdi (director of the Salahuddin Ayyubi Religious Studies School of Orumieh) was exiled to Shno city (also known in Farsi as Oshnavieh). He was sentenced by the Special Clergy Court of Tabriz to two years of exile outside the city of Orumiyeh last year,” an informed source told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).

“During the past few months after his release of this famous Kurdish cleric from Tabriz prison, Trustees and elders met with government officials in order to show leniency and refrain from enforcing this sentence, but the exile order was exiled despite all such efforts and the public’s protests. “, the informed source added.

Mamosta Reza Abdi, Head of the Religious Studies School of Salahuddin Ayyoubi, was set aside from directing the Friday Prayers and Qods Mosque of Islamabad in Orumiyeh in 2015 following the pressure of the Orumiyeh intelligent Office and the Islamic Center of Orumiyeh. He was also put under pressure to close down the Sunni religious school Salah al-Din Ayubi in 2016.

After the Kurdish clerk did not meet the demands of the intelligent officers and the major Islamic Centre of Orumieh, he was sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment and 2 years of exile to a city outside Orumieh on charges of acting against national security in the Special Clergy Tribunal of Tabriz. Once the verdict was finalised, on January 12, 2016, he was summoned to the Special Court for the Clergy of Tabriz and subsequently transferred to the Tabriz Prison for six months in prison.

This clergyman was released on June 4, after being kept in Tabriz Prison for 6 months.