75-Year Prison Sentence Issued for Translator and Member of Rah-e Marfat Institute
Marjan Davoudi, a 52-year-old translator imprisoned in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, has been sentenced to 75 years in prison, of which 25 years will be enforceable. Davoudi was arrested four years ago in connection with the Rah-e Marfat Institute case and was accused of promoting the Eckankar movement.
Marjan Davoudi, a translator and researcher who was sentenced to death in the autumn of 2015 following her arrest along with Karim Zargar, a former IRIB official, was acquitted of the death sentence on Saturday, February 16, 2020, and was instead sentenced to 75 years in prison in a separate case.
Marjan Davoudi, the 52-year-old researcher, is now serving her sentence in Qarchak Prison in Varamin.
Hrana News Agency, referring to Davoudi’s conviction in Branch One of the Criminal Court, states that with the implementation of Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, 25 years of the 75-year prison sentence will be enforceable.
According to the issued verdict, Marjan Davoudi has been sentenced to 75 years in prison on charges of “complicity in committing three counts of rape.”}
Regarding another case in which this researcher was previously sentenced to death on charges of “corruption on earth, unlawful relations, gathering and conspiracy against the system, membership in the Eckankar mystical sect,” she was acquitted of the death sentence by Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Marjan Davoudi’s death sentence was overturned by the General Assembly of the Supreme Court in December of this year and was referred back to this branch for retrial. In December of the previous year, this prisoner’s sentence had been overturned for the second time by the Supreme Court.
According to Hrana, Marjan Davoudi is a translator of books on esoteric and divine sciences, the Illuminationists, and one of the researchers at the Metaphysics Research Institute of Rah-e Marfat.
In September 2015, when the aforementioned institute was shut down and its officials were arrested, Davoudi was also arrested by security forces. Her charges were “corruption on earth, unlawful relations, gathering and conspiracy against the system, membership in the Eckankar mystical sect,” and she was sentenced to death along with Karim Zargar, the other defendant in the case, by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court under the presidency of Judge Movahhedi.
Karim Zargar, the former head of the School of Radio and Television, born in 1332 in Ahvaz, a graduate of judicial law from the Faculty of Law at Tehran University and holder of a doctorate in maritime law from the University of Strasbourg, France, was sentenced to death in 2015 along with Marjan Davoudi in connection with the promotion and dissemination of the emerging mystical movement “Eckankar,” on charges including “corruption on earth,” and was executed on February 1, 2017, in Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj.
Marjan Davoudi, born on April 25, 1966, is a graduate of the graphic design program at Alzahra University in Tehran. She has translated books such as “The Flute of God” by Paul Twitchell, “The Soul of the Seeker” by Phil Morimitsu, and “Spiritual Exercises” by Harold Klemp, which have been published in Iran with the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Source: DW
