a movable image bearing member;

a charging device for electrically charging said image bearing member at a charging position;

a transferring device for contacting said image bearing member at the transfer position and for transferring a toner image from said image bearing member onto a transfer material;

a transferring device contacting and separating mechanism for effecting a separating operation by which said transferring device and said image bearing member contacted to each other are separated from each other;

a discharging device for electrostatically discharging said image bearing member at a discharging position which is upstream of the charging position and which is downstream of the transfer position with respect to a peripheral moving direction of said image bearing member; and

a controller for controlling said discharging device to electrically discharge a first region which is a region of said image bearing member which is about to be subjected to electrostatic image formation, and a second region which is a region of said image bearing member which has been charged by said charging device and which has been separated from said transfer device by said transferring device separating and contacting mechanism before said image bearing member is stopped,

wherein said controller is capable of stopping said discharging device so as not to electrically discharge a third region which is a region between said first region and said second region.