An appeals board of the Ministry of Education has upheld or intensified disciplinary rulings against seven Kurdish teachers, confirming their dismissal, permanent exclusion, suspension, exile, or forced retirement.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported that the Appeals Board for Administrative Violations recently confirmed the dismissal and permanent exclusion of trade union activist Omid Shah-Mohammadi, and the dismissal of Kaveh Mohammadzadeh and Hiwa Ghoreishi.
The board also increased Parviz Ahsani’s five-year exile sentence to dismissal.
Additionally, the rulings of a six-month suspension for Shahram Karimi, a one-year suspension for Loghman Allah-Moradi, and forced retirement with a two-grade demotion for Soleyman Abdi were upheld.
The original verdicts in the cases of Shah-Mohammadi, Ahsani, Mohammadzadeh, and Ghoreishi were issued in September 2024, following hearings at the Primary Board for Administrative Violations of Government Employees in Kurdistan Province.
The teachers, who are all members of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union branches in Divandarreh, were formally notified of their sentences on 7 December 2024.
Shah-Mohammadi was sentenced to “dismissal and permanent exclusion from government service and affiliated institutions”, Ghoreishi and Mohammadzadeh were dismissed from their jobs and Ahsani was sentenced to five years’ exile to schools in Qorveh.
The four activists were arrested at their homes in Divandarreh on 15 June 2022 by security forces due to their trade union activities and participation in a teachers’ sit-in protest.
After spending 86 days detained at the Ministry of Intelligence’s Sanandaj detention centre, they were provisionally released on bail of 15 billion rials (approximately 15,000 USD).
On 19 September 2022, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj sentenced Shah-Mohammadi to one year in prison and four years of suspended imprisonment, while the other three were handed five-year prison sentences, also suspended for four years.
Shah-Mohammadi began serving his sentence in Bijar Prison on 8 April 2023, but was released several months later under electronic monitoring.
Separately, Karimi, Allah-Moradi and Abdi, who are members of the Saqqez branch of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union, have also faced cases brought against them in recent years by the Ministry of Education’s security office or security and judicial authorities due to their trade union and protest activities.
In one such case, Abdi was arrested on 15 June 2022 for his union activities and was temporarily released on bail on 25 June 2022.
Security forces arrested him again in Saqqez on 19 March 2023, transferring him to the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Sanandaj. He was released on bail from Saqqez Prison on 10 April 2023.
Abdi was later sentenced by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Saqqez to eight months in prison for “propaganda against the state”.
In another case, on 14 July 2023, Branch 105 of the Saqqez Criminal Court sentenced him to eight months in prison and 70 lashes on charges of “disturbing public order and peace” by participating in an “illegal gathering” at the Aichi Cemetery in the city.
On 3 March 2024, Abdi was sent to Saqqez Prison to serve his sentence, and was released upon its completion.
Karimi and Allah-Moradi had also previously received rulings from the Primary Board for Administrative Violations of Government Employees in Kurdistan Province, which have now been upheld.
Over the past several years, dozens of teachers working in schools across Kurdistan have faced harsh judicial and disciplinary sentences for pursuing their legitimate union rights.
On 20 August, the Sanandaj branch of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union issued a statement announcing the dismissal, suspension, exile, forced retirement or demotion of 13 Kurdish teachers.