SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A Female Kurdish language teacher in Iran who had been sentenced to five years in prison for alleged national security charges was freed on Friday.
Zara Mohammadi was charged with “establishing a committee and group that is against the stability and security of the system” and sentenced to five years in prison in February 2021.
After serving more than a year of her five-year prison sentence, Kurdish teacher Zara Mohammadi was freed from Sanandaj Correctional Center on the evening of Feb 10, 2023, Hengaw watchdog for human rights tweeted.
“Without informing my attorney, they released me in a hurry,” Zara said in a filmed footage after her release.
Mohammadi’s freedom coincided with Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s decision who has pardoned “tens of thousands” of prisoners including some arrested in recent anti-government protests, last Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA.
However, the pardon approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came with conditions, according to details announced in state media reports, which said the measure would not apply to any of the numerous dual nationals held in Iran.
Iran was swept by protests following the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in the custody of the country’s morality police last September. Iranians from all walks of life took part, marking one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
According to the HRANA activist news agency, about 20,000 people have been arrested in connection with the protests, which the authorities accused Iran’s foreign enemies of fomenting.
Rights groups say over 500 have been killed in the crackdown, including 70 minors. At least four people have been hanged, according to the Iranian judiciary.
