Sepideh Ghilian Tried Again With a New and Strange Charge; The Price of Asking a Simple Question
While Sepideh Ghilian, a civil activist, is serving her sentence in Evin Prison, her lawyer has announced that her trial has been held in Dezful on charges of participating in November protests.
Jamal al-Din Haidari Manesh, Sepideh Ghilian’s lawyer, announced on Monday, July 7, by posting on his Instagram that Ms. Ghilian has been faced with a “heavy,” “unjustified,” and “precedent-setting” charge for her presence at a protest gathering on November 25 of last year in protest against gasoline price increases.
This lawyer stated that since Ms. Ghilian was imprisoned in Evin, she did not have the opportunity to attend Branch 101 of the Criminal Court of Dezful and defend herself. He wrote that her brief presence and holding a placard that contained only a question was investigated, citing Note 286 of the Islamic Penal Code regarding “corruption on earth,” with the heavy, unjustified, and precedent-setting charge of “disrupting public order in a non-widespread manner.”
Mr. Haidari Manesh published a photograph of Sepideh Ghilian during the November demonstrations in this Instagram post. In this image, Ms. Ghilian is holding a placard that reads: “You increased gasoline prices by 300 percent, did you also increase our wages?”
According to Ms. Ghilian’s lawyer, the charge leveled against this civil activist is considered a new invention for specific cases. He called such an interpretation of the penal code provisions strange and challenging.
Ms. Ghilian was transferred to Evin Prison on July 1 to serve a five-year prison sentence that was issued for her participation in a protest gathering of Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers. Several days earlier, she had said that authorities had asked her to write a letter requesting a pardon from the leader of the Islamic Republic, but she had refused.
Most of the convicts in the Haft Tappeh sugar cane case have been pardoned and released.
Sepideh Ghilian, who was initially arrested on the sidelines of Haft Tappeh workers’ protests, was later released, but following the disclosure of forced confessions and torture, she was arrested along with Ismail Bakhshi and after some time, on November 4, along with several labor activists in Iran, was temporarily released with a bail of 500 million tomans. She was also arrested again by participating in popular November protests on the night of Saturday, November 25, at her father’s house and after several days, finally on December 3, was temporarily released with a bail of 200 million tomans.
This civil activist was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on charges of “assembly and conspiracy with the intent to act against national security,” seven years imprisonment for membership in the Gam group, one year and six months imprisonment for propaganda activities against the system, and two years and six months imprisonment for spreading false information. According to Sepideh Ghilian’s lawyer, she was transferred to prison to serve a five-year sentence.
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned violent crackdowns and widespread suppression of protesters in various cases, as well as repeated and continuous violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the ruling regime.
Source: Voice of America
