Hamid Chapati, Kurdish Civil Activist, Sentenced to Six Months in Prison by Appeals Court

Hamid Chapati, a Kurdish civil activist from Urmia, has been sentenced to six months of discretionary imprisonment by Branch 23 of the Appeals Court of West Azerbaijan Province. The ruling was officially communicated to him on August 18, 2025.

According to an informed source, on March 12, 2025, Behzad Sarikhanlou, Deputy Prosecutor of the Urmia Public and Revolutionary Court, objected to the initial ruling, and after the case was referred to the appeals court, Chapati’s sentence was increased to six months.

Previously, Branch 2 of the Urmia Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Shahini, had sentenced Chapati to three months of discretionary imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the regime.”

The initial hearing on the charges against this Kurdish civil activist was held on February 15, 2025, at the Revolutionary Court of Urmia, and the preliminary verdict was delivered to his lawyer on February 19 of the same year.

On the morning of Wednesday, October 16, 2024, after being summoned by phone to the Security Police for posting critical content on social media, Hamid Chapati was arrested.

Later that same day, following formal indictment at the Urmia Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office, he was temporarily released on bail pending the outcome of legal proceedings.