Court Upholds 24-Year Prison Sentence for Saba Kordafshari Over Unveiled Walking Protest
Iran’s Supreme Court rejected a request for retrial filed by lawyers of Saba Kordafshari, who has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for protesting mandatory hijab.
According to Hrana news agency, after Kordafshari’s defense lawyers requested a retrial and review of the case, Branch 28 of the Supreme Court rejected the request, thereby upholding her prison sentence.
The 24-year prison sentence for this civil activist was issued on three charges, and according to Islamic Penal Law, the highest sentence in this case—15 years imprisonment on charges of “corruption and lewdness”—will be enforced.
Saba Kordafshari, one of the activists in the “White Wednesdays” campaign, was arrested in Tehran in June 2019.
After some time, Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced the civil activist to 15 years in prison on charges of “incitement to corruption and lewdness,” to seven and a half years on charges of “assembly and conspiracy to commit crimes against national security,” and to one and a half years on charges of “anti-system propaganda activities.”
International bodies and human rights defenders have strongly criticized the Islamic Republic’s crackdowns on those opposing mandatory hijab.
The U.S. State Department also mentioned Saba Kordafshari’s name in its latest annual human rights report on various countries worldwide, published last March, stating that the Islamic Republic “abducts” civil activists, keeps their families uninformed for extended periods, and pressures them to provide “televised confessions.”
Rachele Ahmadi, Saba Kordafshari’s mother who supported her daughter’s activism, has also been sentenced to 31 months in prison.
Ahmadi was arrested in January 2020 to serve her sentence and was transferred to Evin Prison.
Source: Radio Farda
