Afshin Sheikholeslami Vatani

Afshin Sheikholeslami Vatani is an Iranian Kurdish political activist, a civil engineer, and environmentalist. Vatani is also a US resident who had immigrated to America in 2015. On 27 June 2020, he was arrested at his family's home in Sanandaj by the security forces linked with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. The Iranian Revolutionary Court confiscated his passport and banned him from leaving the country. Vatani is charged with disrupting public order and is a Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) member, an armed Kurdish opposition group. On 31 July 2020, it was reported that Vatani has still not been charged by the Iranian judiciary 35 days after his arrest. His imprisonment has been extended by the Sanandaj prosecutor's office's second branch. On 20 September 2020, after over three months in detention, Vatani was released on 200 million Toman bail.