Iran hands five years to Kurd for ‘collusion against national security’: Hengaw

An Iranian court recently passed a five-year prison sentence on a Kurd for allegedly belonging to an opposition party, a rights group reported on Sunday.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – An Iranian court recently passed a five-year prison sentence on a Kurd for allegedly belonging to an opposition party, a rights group reported on Sunday.

During a session in the Revolutionary Court of Urmia on Thursday, a youth from the Iranian Kurdish (Rojhilati) city of Urmia, Kurdistan Province, by the name of Eghbal Ahmed-Pour was put on trial, wrote Hengaw, a group that reports human rights violations against Rojhilatis.

“The Urmia Revolutionary Court accused the young man of colluding against national security for aiding and holding membership with one of the Kurdish parties that oppose Iran and sentenced him to five years in prison,” the group explained.

The court denied Ahmed-Pour the right to a lawyer and a fair trial, a source close to the incident had told Hengaw.

The sentencing comes just twenty days after officers from Urmia’s branch of Ministry of Intelligence (Ettela’at) apprehended Ahmed-Pour.

He is currently detained at Urmia Central Prison.

On Sep. 30, another court extended the previously handed-down sentence of eleven years of two other men from Urmia by an extra year.

A source close to the two men had told Iran-based HRANA rights group that they had traveled to Syria to join the ranks of a Kurdish armed group where they partook in a battle against Turkish forces and got injured.

Shortly after, they were handed over to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and transferred back to their country.

Editing by Nadia Riva