Four Civil Activists Sentenced to Total of 8 Years in Prison at Appeals Court

Akbar Azad, Alireza Farshi, Behnam Sheikhi, and Hamid Manafi Nadarlou, four civil activists who were previously sentenced to lengthy prison terms and exile in primary court, have been sentenced to a total of 8 years in prison and 8 years of exile at the appeals court.

An informed source told Voice of America on Monday, December 30, that the appeals court hearing for these four Azerbaijani (Turkic) civil activists, who were arrested during a celebration of International Mother Language Day in Nasim City, Tehran, in December 2013, was held on December 2 at Branch 54 of Tehran’s Court of Appeals under the presidency of Judge Babaei. The verdict was delivered to Seyyed Mohammad Faqihi, the attorney for the case, on Monday, December 30.

Voice of America cannot independently verify the details of this report.

According to this informed source, during the court hearing, the activists and their defense lawyer rejected the charge of “participating in forming an association to undermine national security” and called the foundation of the case and judicial process illegal. They stated that “any verdict issued by this court, regardless of its content, will be considered a reflection of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s approach to the mother language issue of non-Persian ethnic groups and will be recorded in history.”

Based on available information, each of these individuals was sentenced by Branch 54 of Tehran’s Court of Appeals to 2 years in prison and 2 years of exile.

Previously, Voice of America reported that Alireza Farshi, Akbar Azad, Behnam Sheikhi, and Hamid Manafi were sentenced in 2016 by Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of Baharestan County to 15 years in prison and two years of exile to Bagmalek County in Khuzestan Province, 10 years in prison and two years of exile to Dareh Shehr County in Ilam Province, 10 years in prison and two years of exile to Masjed Soleiman County in Khuzestan Province, and 10 years in prison and two years of exile to Azna City in Lorestan Province, respectively.

This informed source told Voice of America that two weeks after the appeals court hearing, Alireza Farshi, who had been following up on the appeals court verdict, was arrested by security forces on Wednesday, December 8, for undisclosed reasons and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison.

This is not the first time Azerbaijani activists have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms. In early October of this year, the 8-year prison sentence of Abbas Lesani, another Azerbaijani activist sentenced by Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of Ardabil under the presidency of Judge Khodadadi, was increased to 15 years by Nasser Atbati, the head of Branch One of Ardabil’s Court of Appeals.

According to a 2018 Amnesty International report, more than seven thousand people, including protest participants, students, journalists, women’s rights activists, environmental activists, labor activists, and ethnic and religious minority rights activists in Iran, were arrested and hundreds were imprisoned.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned violent crackdowns and widespread suppression of protesters, as well as repeated and continuous violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the ruling regime of the country.

Source: Voice of America