A Kurdish civil rights activist was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison and 20 lashes by the branch 102 of Criminal Court of Marivan on charge of “disturbing public order” for participation in a protest rally against Turkish Army’s invasion of the Kurdish-Syrian Afrin city, a source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) .
The Iranian security forces arrested Kurdish civil activist Arman Ghafouri along with ten other civil activists following a protest rally against the Turkish army’s raid on the Kurdish border of Syria (Rojava) on March 12, 2018 who was released two days later on a bail of five million tomans.
Ghafouri had also been arrested by the Intelligence Unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on July 24, 2018 who was then taken to Marivan prison after 3 months of interrogation at the Ministry of Intelligence Detention Centre in Sanandaj.
Uncertainty over the situation of Ghafouri after his arrest had raised serious concerns about his death from torture. He was eventually released from the Marivan prison on bail until the end of his trial.
