A Kurdish journalist has been sentenced to 21 years imprisonment by an Iranian revolutionary court, having been tried on a number of charges after a series of arrests.
Jîna Muderîs Gurcî is a prominent journalist and women’s rights activist originally from Sanandaj (Sine) in Iran’s Kurdistan province. She was known as the ‘voice of the people’ in her home town.
On 23 May this year, she was handed a sentence of 21 years in prison on three separate charges consisting of 10 years for “establishing an illegal organisation to overthrow the regime”, 10 years for “acting as informant for foreign states” and one year for “making propaganda against the regime”.
According to the verdict, examples of the claims made against Gurcî include “intent to overthrow the government by forming a parliament based on feminist ideology, participating in meetings against the people and calling for an uprising against society, applying a continuous crackdown on dissent, participating in international conferences and training seminars, discrediting Iran by writing articles on social issues and holding interviews with foreign media outlets, and stirring up society after the death of Jîna Amini.”
Hengaw Human Rights Organisation said the whole case rested on reports by Iranian intelligence.
The court also ruled that Gurcî must serve the sentence in Hamedan Prison, 175 km from her home town, making it extremely difficult for her family and friends to visit her, a tactic frequently used against political prisoners by the Iranian regime. Gurcî’s lawyers are appealing the sentence.
Hengaw also reported that the revolutionary court had declared the Criminal Court responsible for investigating a further charge of “spreading falsehoods and inciting people to violent acts”.
The human rights watchdog said that Gurcî had been previously arrested twice before – the first time in the wake of the ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ (‘Woman, Life, Freedom’) movement in September 2022. She was again picked up by Iranian intelligence on 10 April 2023, and detained in solitary confinement for a month at the Sanandaj Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre before being transferred to prison for a further two months. On both occasions she was released on bail.