Tortured Kurdish Author Sentenced to Over Three Years in Prison

An Iranian court has sentenced Ashkan Fahim, a prominent Kurdish author and cultural activist jailed for more than 100 days, to 45 months in prison and two years in exile to the central city of Arak.

The First Branch of the Mahabad Revolutionary Court issued the sentence during an online hearing on December 16 on charges of "gathering and colluding against the security of the country and propaganda against the system." 

The defendant was denied access to his lawyer during the judicial proceedings was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment that worsened his pre-existing heart condition, a source close to the family told IranWire. 

Fahim’s arrest and sentencing came amid an intensifying crackdown by the Islamic Republic on civil society and dissent. 

Fahim was violently arrested in the early morning of September 15, when dozens of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization (IRGC-OI) raided his home in Mahabad, in West Azerbaijan province. 

"The violence Ashkan Fahim experienced during his arrest was horrifying. Guns were pointed at his head and shots were fired inside the house, hitting the door and the wall," the source said. 

Fahim was bleeding when he was transported to an IRGC detention center in Urmia, the largest city in West Azerbaijan. 

"Ashkan Fahim, who denied all accusations against him, was tortured in the IRGC security detention center to extract a confession from him," the source said.