Mohammadollah Rezaei Sentenced to Prison on Political Charges

HRANA – Mohammadollah Rezaei, a resident of Dehgolan, has been sentenced by Branch 102 of the Dehgolan Criminal Court to one year in prison.

According to Kurdpa, the court sentenced Mr. Rezaei to one year in prison on the charge of “propaganda against the regime.”

Mr. Rezaei was arrested on July 2, 2025, by security forces in Dehgolan. After 55 days in The Ministry of Intelligence’s detention facility, he was released on bail of 800 million tomans.

He is a resident of Dehgolan and originally from Sanandaj.

Four Citizens Arrested by Security Forces

HRANA– Farya Chavoshini, Mohammadollah Rezaei, Esmail Choukali, and Zubair Mahmoudi—residents of Dehgolan, Bukan, and Piranshahr—have been arrested by security forces and taken to an undisclosed location.

According to Kurdpa, Mohammadollah Rezaei was arrested in Dehgolan, while Farya Chavoshini and Esmail Choukali were detained in Bukan, and Zubair Mahmoudi in Piranshahr.

Mr. Mahmoudi was arrested on Thursday, July 10, and the other three individuals on Saturday, July 12.

As of the time of this report, no information has been made available regarding the reasons for the arrests, the whereabouts of the detainees, or the charges against them.

Truckers’ Strike: Two Arrested in Kurdistan Province

HRANA News Agency – Zanko Rostami in Dehgolan and Rezgar Moradi in Sanandaj were arrested by security forces for supporting and participating in the nationwide truckers’ strike.

Based on information obtained by HRANA, Rezgar Moradi was arrested on May 27 in Sanandaj, and Zanko Rostami was detained on May 25 in Dehgolan by security forces.

Mr. Rostami was arrested during a protest gathering by truckers in Dehgolan, and his current status remains unknown. Moradi was detained on the Sanandaj–Marivan road and, following the issuance of a one-month detention order, was transferred to Sanandaj Prison.

The truckers’ protests began in Iran on May 22. Since then, dozens of truckers and supporters have been arrested in various cities across the country.

Additionally, HRANA has published a comprehensive report on the past week’s strikes, detailing the causes behind the protests, their spread, the government’s response, and the status of those detained.

Civil Rights Activist Soheila Mataei Arrested in Dehgolan

HRANA News Agency – On Monday, March 10, 2025, Soheila Mataei, a resident of Dehgolan, Kurdistan province, was arrested by security forces and transferred to an undisclosed location.

According to HRANA, quoting Kurdpa, Mataei was detained without a court order. Reports suggest that her arrest was linked to her role in organizing an International Women’s Day event in Sanandaj. As of now, no information is available about her whereabouts or the charges against her.

History of Arrests and Legal Proceedings

Mataei has a history of previous arrests related to her activism:

January 22, 2025: She was briefly detained in Dehgolan amid protests against death sentences issued for Varisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi.
October 1, 2022: Arrested during the nationwide protests and later released on bail.
November 12, 2022: Arrested again by security forces and transferred to the Sanandaj Juvenile Correctional Center after interrogation.
December 2022: Branch 2 of the Dehgolan Criminal Court sentenced her to three years and nine months in prison on charges of “disrupting public order, spreading false information to disturb public opinion, defying authorities, and propaganda against the regime through support for opposition groups.”

Mataei’s repeated arrests and prison sentences highlight the continued targeting of civil activists in Iran.

Seven Citizens Arrested in Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan Provinces

HRANA News Agency – In recent days, seven citizens have been arrested by security forces in the cities of Dehgolan, Sanandaj, Mahabad, and Sardasht and transferred to an undisclosed location.

According to HRANA, citing Kolbar News, the arrested individuals have been identified as follows:

  • Mehdi Javanmardi, Farhad Zandi, Arsalan Miraki, and Farshad Seyedi – all residents of Dehgolan
  • Mansour Moloudpour – resident of Mahabad
  • Hassan Khalili – resident of Sardasht (released two days after his arrest)
  • Chiako Ghorbehei

Details of the Arrests:

On Monday, January 27, 2025, Mehdi Javanmardi and Farhad Zandi were arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents in Dehgolan and taken to an unknown location. A day earlier, on Sunday, January 26, Arsalan Mirki and Farshad Seyedi, also from Dehgolan, were detained by security forces and similarly transferred to an undisclosed location.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, January 25, Mansour Moloudpour was arrested by security forces at his workplace in Mahabad. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Additionally, Hassan Khalili, a resident of Sardasht, was arrested on Wednesday, January 22. After two days in custody, he was released on Friday, January 24 following an interrogation.

At the time of this report, no information is available regarding the reasons for these arrests or the charges brought against these individuals.

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Hekmat Amiri Sentenced to Imprisonment

Hekmat Amiri, a resident of Dehgolan in Kurdistan province, was sentenced to forty-two months in prison by the Revolutionary Court of this county, as reported by Kurdpa.

Based on a ruling issued by Branch 1 of the Dehgolan Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Rostami Ahghar, and communicated to Mr. Amiri in late July, he was sentenced to forty-two months in prison on charges of propaganda against the regime”” and “collaboration with anti-regime groups and organizations.” Thirty-six months of the sentence have been suspended.

Hekmat Amiri is a resident of Dehgolan who is active in the fields of environmental protection and addiction treatment.

Amjad Bakhtiari Sentenced to Imprisonment and Flogging

Amjad Bakhtiari, a teacher residing in Dehgolan and one of the detainees from the 2022 nationwide protests, has been sentenced by the criminal court of Dehgolan to one year of imprisonment and 74 lashes, according to the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations.

The report states that Mr. Bakhtiari was arrested by security forces during the 2022 nationwide protests and was released on bail shortly after.

Kamal Lotfi Arrested by Security Forces in Dehgolan

On April 9, 2024, security forces apprehended Kamal Lotfi in Dehgolan, Kurdistan province, transferring him to an undisclosed facility. His 25-year-old son, Reza Lotfi, tragically lost his life at the hands of regime forces during the nationwide protests on September 19, 2022.

Confirming Lotfi’s arrest, a source close to his family informed HRANA that he was taken into custody after receiving a summons from the Revolutionary Court of Qorveh. The specific reasons for his arrest, his current location, and the charges against him remain undisclosed at this time.

This is not Lotfi’s first encounter with law enforcement. On April 17, 2023, security forces detained him through physical force, leading to his imprisonment in Kamyaran Prison. He was subsequently released on bail on July 3, 2023.

Iran Protests: Two People Arrested in Sardasht and Dehgolan

In recent days, security forces arrested Sunni cleric Hassan Koohi in Sardasht and Shayan Sadeghi in Dehgolan and took them to undisclosed locations.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting Kurdpa, on January 19, 2023, Sunni cleric Hassan Koohi was arrested by security forces in Sardasht, West Azerbaijan Province.

At arrest, the agents reportedly did not show any arrest warrant.
Also, on January 18, Shayan Sadeghi was arrested by security forces at his home in Dehgolan, Kurdistan Province.
The reason for these arrests and the allegations against these individuals are still unknown.

Since the outbreak of nationwide protests, about 19500 people, including journalists, artists, lawyers, teachers, students and civil rights activists, have been arrested. So far, over protests, about 730 people have been sentenced to a total of about 12000 months imprisonment.

 

 

Nationwide Protests in Iran Continue on Day Sixteen

On October 1, 2022, despite the heavy presence of riot police and plainclothes security agents, Iranian people held demonstrations in many cities including Mashhad, Rasht, Dehgolan, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tehran, Shahrekord, Shahin Shahr, Arak, Bukan, Babol, Karaj. Moreover, on at least 27 universities campus, the students held protests. These protests continued in Tehran, Isfahan, Bushehr and at least 25 universities on the following day, October 2.

The map below shows the geographical distribution of protests across Iran during the last 48 hours.

In most cases, peaceful student protests turned violent by the police as dozens of students were arrested by the security forces. On the University of Isfahan campus, the security agents or the police fired tear gas at the crowd of protesting students.

Last night, the police and security forces surrounded the Sharif University of Technology, chasing and arresting violently the students who left the campus. The police fired tear gas and pellet guns, leading to several students’ injuries. 

According to Iran’s Student Union, several protesting students were trapped in a university building by university security agents and then arrested by the police.

The students chanted slogans such as “Death to the dictator”, “don’t call it protests, it is now a revolution”, and “jailed students should be freed.” They also chanted slogans against the Supreme Leader, Khamenei.

On October 2, in Isfahan and Piranshahr, traders and shopkeepers joined the general strike and closed their shops.

Meanwhile, in recent days, the record-breaking hashtag Mahsa Amini (مهسا_امینی#) reached over 200 million times on Twitter.

Like the previous days, most parts of the country, especially Kurdistan, faced internet and mobile phone disruptions and outages.

Last Friday, September 30, in Zahedan, in Sistan and Baluchistan province, the security forces opened fire at the crowd of protestors coming from the Friday prayer. According to Iranian Sunni cleric Molavi Abdul Hamid, at least 40 people were killed in this incident.

The number of people arrested is increasing day on day. HRANA identified 31 arrests alone for yesterday.

Kurdistan police chief claimed that more than 150 people arrested during the “unrest” have been released.

It is estimated that 30 to 40 students at the Sharif University of Technology were arrested.

Anti-riot police and security forces use live ammunition against the protestors. HRANA has identified 150 death tolls, of which some have been verified by HRANA after fact-checking.

Below is the compilation of the videos from the protests in the past 24 hours.