During the past few days, the three-months and one-day imprisonment sentence of a member of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Trade Association was suspended by the Kurdistan Regional Court of Appeals.

“Taher Ghaderzadeh, a member of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Trade Association, was summoned to Saqez court in March 2015 on charges of disturbing public opinion and launching illegal gatherings” after arranging several gatherings in Saqez,” an informed source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network.

“The case was sent to Branch 5 of the Revolutionary Court of Saqez after completing the interrogations. In April 2016, he was sentenced to” 91 days of imprisonment “on charges of” disturbing public opinion “. But his lawyer contested the verdict and his case was referred to the appeals court of Kurdistan province”, the source stated.

“In the past few days, Kurdistan Provincial Court of Appeal issued an unfair verdict and sentenced this activist to 91 days of imprisonment which was suspended for three years despite hearing the lawyer’ reasonable contest statements,” the source added.

Over the past few days, a number of news websites had reported that a three-year suspended imprisonment sentence had been issued for this Kurdish teacher, but our informed source stated that the sentence was “91 days of imprisonment suspended for 3 years” rather than three years of suspended imprisonment.