Mehdi Tavakoli, a photographer from Sanandaj, was recently sentenced to one year of punitive imprisonment and one year of suspended imprisonment by Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj on charges of acting against national security.

According to the information obtained by Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), Mehdi Tavakoli, one of the well-known Kurdish photographers was sentenced to one year of imprisonment and one year of suspended imprisonment for five years by Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj headed by Judge Saeedi on charges of acting against national security on July 12, 2017, and the verdict was officially served on him.

This photographer was arrested by “security forces” along with another artist known as Mohammad Abdi in Sanandaj on Oct 12, 2016. He was interrogated for 35 days at the Intelligence Ministry Detention Centre in Sanandaj and later on Transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison. He was released on a “Bail of 300 Million Iranian Tomans” after 10 days.

“Mehdi Tavakoli” is one of the photography teachers of the Kurdistan Youth Cinema Association. He has held several exhibitions about “Yazidi Shingal and Kobani displaced persons in the Kurdistan Regional Government” in Sanandaj.