Four Years After Arrest at Cyrus Day Ceremony; Three Civil Activists Sentenced to Total of 56 Years in Prison

Three civil activists from Mashhad who were arrested by security forces near Marvdasht in 2016 after participating in a Cyrus Day ceremony have recently been sentenced to a total of 56 years in prison by the Mashhad Revolutionary Court.

An informed source, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told Voice of America that the court hearing for Ali Sepantamehr, Seyedmohsen Mir Aftab Shahre, and Majid Rahimzadeh Naskhi took place on October 18, 2024, in the sixth branch of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court headed by Judge Hossein Bahmanabaadi, four years after their arrest. According to this source, the verdict was delivered to these three civil activists in person on Wednesday, November 7.

According to the informed source, based on the court document issued, Ali Sepantamehr has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for “participating in the formation of the Sepantamehr group by establishing and managing the Sepantamehr Telegram channel with the intention of undermining national security,” “membership in groups opposed to the Islamic Republic system,” “propaganda activities against the system,” and “insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic.” Mohsen Mir Aftab has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for charges including “membership in a group opposed to the system,” “insulting the leadership,” “insulting sacred values,” and “participating in the formation of the Sepantamehr group by establishing the Yaran-e Sepanta Telegram group with the intention of undermining national security.” Majid Rahimzadeh Naskhi has also been sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges of “membership in a group opposed to the system,” “participating in the formation of the Sepantamehr group through the Yaran-e Sepantamehr Telegram group with the intention of undermining national security,” “insulting the leadership,” and “propaganda against the system.”

According to the informed source, these charges were presented to the three civil activists in court despite no evidence, proof, or documentation being provided against them. These Mashhad-based activists faced these charges solely because they had formed a literary association in which they discussed Iranian history through the lens of literature and Shahnameh readings. The court document shows that these sentences were based solely on a report and indictment prepared by the Mashhad Intelligence Bureau regarding the propagation of Zoroastrianism and opposition to the system under the guise of Shahnameh reading, Ali Sepantamehr’s speech at the 2016 Cyrus Day ceremony in Pasargadae, and the formation of an online group called Yaran-e Sepantamehr.

The informed source told Voice of America that the three civil activists were arrested on November 1, 2016, three days after participating in the Cyrus Day ceremony, along with five other Mashhad residents near Marvdasht. They were temporarily released in late November of the same year after posting 30 million tomans bail from Dolvat Abad Prison in Marvdasht.

According to the informed source, the Marvdasht prosecutor announced that “the complainant is the Mashhad Intelligence Bureau” and transferred the case to the Mashhad Revolutionary Court.

It should be noted that if these sentences are upheld by the court of appeal, based on Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, 10 years of the sentences issued for Messrs. Sepantamehr and Rahimzadeh Naskhi and 5 years of the sentence issued for Mr. Mir Aftab Shahre will be enforced as the most severe penalty.

This is not the first time that civil activists and political activists in Iran have been arrested after attending the Cyrus Day ceremony in Pasargadae, Shiraz, and then sentenced to imprisonment on dubious charges. Yasmin Hanifeh Tabatabai, a political activist and member of the Iranian Democratic Front Council, who was arrested on the road to Pasargadae in November of last year, was sentenced by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court to one year in prison, four months of forced labor in a nursing home, and two years of deprivation from political activities, party membership, and gatherings, on charges of “conspiracy and propaganda against the system.” Ms. Tabatabai is currently serving her sentence in Evin Prison.

Although there is no official commemoration called Cyrus Day in the official calendar of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the seventh of Aban month has been unofficially dedicated to Cyrus, and every year some Iranians pay tribute to the founder of the Achaemenid Empire by gathering at Pasargadae.

Iranian Islamic Republic officials make efforts every year as the date of November 7 approaches to prevent the Cyrus Day ceremony and gatherings of Iranian citizens at Pasargadae by closing the road leading to it. However, in recent years, large crowds gather around Cyrus’s tomb at Pasargadae on that day and keep the memory of that Achaemenid king alive.