Iranian security forces arrested the environmental activist Faranak Cemşîdî at her home in Sinê on 28 June 2020. She was released on bail for approximately 8,000 US Dollars on 10 November 2020. In her 23 January trial, at an Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sinê she was sentenced to four years in prison for “being a member of a Kurdish opposition party”, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).

The court considered Faranak’s participation in democratic rallies held to protest against the Turkish military attacks on Ras al-Ayn (Serêkaniyê) as a crime.

Faranak’s conversations in Telegram groups are also listed in her prosecution file as proof of her membership in one of the Kurdish opposition parties, according to Yeni Özgür Politika’s report.

Cemşîdî was previously asked to give statements by the Iranian security forces several times during the mass arrest of environmental activists and members of the Kurdistan branch of the National Unity Party in the autumn of 2018.