Babak Dabirian, a civil society activist and journalist from Kermanshah, was arrested by security forces on June 8, 2020, shortly after he was summoned to one of the branches of the Revolutionary Courts of Kermanshah to be sentenced to prison. Dabirian was initially summoned to court two days prior to his arrest, on June 6.

Dabirian was first arrested on December 25, 2019, during the 40th-day memorial ceremony for one of the victims of the November 2019 protests. He was arrested on a street in Kermanshah by security forces without a court order.

After Dabirian’s arrest, security officers searched his family home and confiscated a number of his personal belongings. He was interrogated for nearly 40 days, in the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Detention Center in Kermanshah after which he was officially charged and transferred to Dieselabad Prison in Kermanshah.

On January 30, 2020, Dabirian was released from prison on temporary bail of one billion tomans until the end of the court proceedings against him.

According to one informed source, the charges against Dabirian include “membership and collaboration with Kurdish political parties opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” “propaganda against the state” and “actions against national security.”

With the start of court proceedings against him, Dabirian’s case was heard in one of the Branches of the Revolutionary Courts of Kermanshah in May 2020.


There is still no information available about the sentence issued by the court against Babak Dabirian.