Kurdish writer Mozhgan Kavousi has been sentenced to over five years in jail in Iran for charges that include alleged actions to “disrupt national security”.

However, the charge of “corruption on earth” brought against her at her recent trial had been dropped, Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHR) has learned.

The verdict was handed down by the First Branch of the Islamic Revolution Court. 

Her lawyers were informed on 29 December that she had been sentenced to five years and two months in jail as follows:  39 months for “inciting people to war and killing to disrupt national security”, eight months in prison for “propaganda against the state” and 15 months and one day in jail for “insulting the supreme leader”.

She was tried on 20 December, months after her arrest on 22 September at her family home in Nowshahr, Mazandaran province. 

Kavousi is a former political prisoner released in January 2022 after she spent nearly two years in jail.