Kurdish civilians Azim Yadegari and Vahab Khediripour have been imprisoned to serve sentences of 10 years and eight months in Ilam and Mahabad, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported.

Yadegari, one of the detainees of the anti-government ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi’ (Woman, Life, Freedom) uprising from Dehloran in Ilam Province, was arrested in Tehran on 14 May and sent to Ilam Central Prison to begin serving his sentence.

He had previously been detained on 14 February 2023 alongside his wife, Safoura Maleki, after security forces raided their home. He was initially held at the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Ilam before being moved to the city’s main prison.

On 10 April 2023, Yadegari went on a hunger strike with three other Kurdish men – Hossein Bapirvand, Farshad Aeini, and Saadollah Aeini – in protest at their prolonged detention.

A demonstration held on 25 April 2023 outside the Dehloran governor’s office led to his temporary release on bail.

In January 2024, he and several others were sentenced to a combined total of 10 years and one day in prison on charges of “disturbing public order and peace” and “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against the domestic and external security of the country”.

Meanwhile, Khediripour, a Kurdish civilian from Mahabad, was arrested on 19 May after being summoned to the Enforcement of Judgements Office of the city’s Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office, and sent to Mahabad Prison to serve his eight-month sentence.

He was sentenced to 10 months in prison in April by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Mahabad on charges of “propaganda against the state” in support of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI). The sentence was later reduced to eight months after he chose not to appeal the ruling.

Khediripour is the cousin of Shamal Khediripour, who was killed during the anti-government ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi’ protests in the city.

His brother Sohrab Khediripour, a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), was killed in a clash with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2021.

Khediripour was previously arrested on 29 January after being summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence in Mahabad, and was provisionally released on bail of five billion rials (nearly 5,500 USD) on 19 February 2025.