Sunni Cleric Arrested By Security Forces in Kamyaran

On December 24, security forces arrested Sunni Cleric Mohammad-Mirza Rahmani in Kamyaran County, Kurdistan Province and transferred him to an unidentified location.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting Kurdpa, Rahmani, a resident of the village Lown-e Sadat, was arrested due to his speech at the funeral of Heydar Ghorbani, a political prisoner who was recently executed in Sanandaj prison.

Despite inquiry from his family, his whereabouts are still unknown at the time of writing.

Supreme Court Rejects Heydar Ghorbani’s Request for Retrial

Branch 27 of the Supreme Court rejected political prisoner Heydar Ghorbani’s latest request for retrial.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, Mr. Ghorbani has been previously sentenced to death by the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court on a charge of “insurgency”.

Heydar Ghorbani, a native of the village of Bazvash in Kamyaran area in Kurdistan Province, was first sentenced in October 2019 to three charges of imprisonment each for 30 years on charges of assisting in murder, assault with a deadly weapon, helping offenders to escape from law enforcement, involvement in premeditated murder, murder attempt, affixing a license plate to another car, attempt to kidnap, and the acquisition of stolen property.

The First Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj eventually sentenced Mr. Ghorbani to death on the charge of insurgency.

In August 2020, Branch 2 of the Supreme Court in Qom upheld the sentence and sent the case to the Kamyaran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office for enforcement of the judgment.

Saleh Nikbakht, Mr. Ghorbani’s attorney, announced in August 2020 that his client’s request for retrial had been filed. In September 2020, this request was overturned by Branch 27 of the Supreme Court.

In December 2020, another retrial was requested which was overturned last week. Saleh Nikbakht, Gorbani’s defense lawyer, said he will request a retrial again.

“From a legal and jurisprudential point of view, the accusation of insurgent against Mr. Ghorbani is not valid because someone who is called [rebel] insurgence is someone who is a member of a group which revolts against the Islamic Republic,” Nikbakht said. “If the group members use weapons, then they will be sentenced to death. None of these are true about Mr. Heydar Ghorbani.”

Heydar Ghorbani Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison

Labor activist Heydar Ghorbani was sentenced to 11 years in prison by the Second Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Shahriar County.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting The Free Union of Iranian Workers, Ghorbani is from Kamyaran in Kurdistan Province.

Ghorbani is a construction worker and a member of the Free Trade Union of Iran.

According to the report, the labor activist was sentenced on charges of “membership in a group or population or a branch of a population formed within the country to disrupt the security of the country” and “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”.