Prison sentences and floggings for protesters against the downing of the Ukrainian plane in Amol; Intellectual Council imprisoned

Shura Fikri, a civil activist in the city of Amol, was imprisoned on Monday, May 19, to serve a 5-month prison sentence for protesting the downing of a Ukrainian plane by a Revolutionary Guard missile. So far, none of those who ordered the missile to be fired at the Ukrainian passenger plane have been summoned, and Islamic Republic officials have announced that the person who pulled the trigger is in custody.

 On the morning of Wednesday, January 8, 2019, a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 people crashed minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini Airport near Tehran after being hit by a missile from the Revolutionary Guards, killing all on board. Officials in the Islamic Republic blamed a technical malfunction for the crash, and three days after the disaster, the General Staff of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces admitted in an official statement that the Revolutionary Guards’ defenses had mistakenly targeted the plane. They blamed “human error” for the horrific disaster.

Since Saturday, January 11, thousands of people in Tehran and various cities in Iran, especially students, have been holding protest rallies to protest the downing of a Ukrainian plane by the IRGC.

In some cases, these gatherings escalated into clashes and violence.

More than 16 people who protested the downing of the plane in the city of Amol have been sentenced to prison and flogging. Protesters who planned to light candles in the city's Qaem Square on Sunday, January 12, 2019, to express sympathy for the families of the victims of the Ukrainian plane, were detained by military and security forces.

Shura Fekri, Mohsen Rezaei, Meysam Khalili, Mehdi Rai, and Salman Farrokhi are five of these protesters who were arrested by the IRGC intelligence and sentenced to five months in prison each by Branch 1 of the Amol Revolutionary Court.

Eleven other citizens of Amol: Amin Forouhi, Ali Shokri, Azadeh and Aidin and Aida Javani, Alireza Mohammadnejad, Fereshteh Mahmoudi, Hossein Mostafa Nia, Meysam Khodabandehlu, Hamid Mohammadi Irani, Amin Forouhi and Mohammadreza Shojaei, who were arrested by the security police, were charged with propaganda activities against the regime by Branch 1 of the Amol Revolutionary Court and sentenced to a total of 88 months in prison, and sentenced to 5 months in prison and 20 lashes by the Amol Criminal Court on charges of disturbing public order. The criminal court's sentence is suspended for one year.

An informed source told the campaign that the trials of these citizens in Branch 1 of the Amol Revolutionary Court, presided over by Morteza Mahdavi, were one-minute trials and they were not allowed to have a lawyer or defend themselves. The source told the campaign: “The trial did not last even a minute. The judge asked if you were at the rally? Did you chant slogans? And that’s it. And then he issued a verdict. The verdict itself is not two lines and states that, based on the police report, each of these citizens is sentenced to 8 months in prison. In fact, neither the way the trial was held nor the verdict that was issued has any legal or legal standing.”

All those arrested in the city of Amol are free on bail, but Shura Fikri, a civil activist, was imprisoned on Monday, May 19, with the execution of a prison sentence.

An eyewitness in the city of Amol told the campaign: “A ceremony to commemorate the victims of the Ukrainian plane crash was supposed to be held at 6 pm in Ghaem Square in Amol, where people would light candles, in fact, it would be a memorial ceremony. A number of people gathered, but the police began to disperse them and did not allow the ceremony to take place. They tried to disperse them by beating people. The gathering was without any violence, they were just chanting slogans and were completely on the sidewalk and had not entered the street. There were between 1,500 and 2,000 people, the majority of whom, about 70 percent, were women. All of them were beaten by military and security forces. Some were arrested by the IRGC’s intelligence and some by the security police. While those who were arrested did not show any resistance because they had not done anything illegal, the officers beat them with batons, punches, and kicks until two of them had their heads split open and were bleeding, but they were taken away in the same manner.”

A source familiar with the stripping of detainees by the IRGC Intelligence told the campaign, saying, “They treated them very badly. They stripped everyone naked and even took off their underwear under the pretext of a body search. Then they handcuffed them to a chair and severely beat them, to the point that when they were released, there were signs of beating on their bodies. When they were in the IRGC Intelligence, Rahim Rostami, the investigator in the case, interrogated them at the place of detention and severely insulted and abused the children.”

According to this source, 14 people were arrested by the security police, three of whom were acquitted and 11 were sentenced to prison and flogging. He asked about the way the security police treated the detainees.

The campaign said: “The detainees were taken to the basement of the Intelligence Department’s detention center, which is shared with the Intelligence Department’s detention center, and no action was taken to treat two of the people who were bleeding from their heads. This is despite the fact that a young man with the appearance of a member of the Party of God was present there and claimed that he had come from the leadership’s office to see if there was any trouble or beatings. In response to the children’s protests about the beatings, he said that the issue on the street had nothing to do with me! At the same time, Mehdi Alizadeh, who was in charge of the case, took the children’s mobile phones and read their private matters, laughing and making fun of them.”

This source told the campaign: “What happened in Amol was not really a security issue. It was a very simple incident. After that really bitter incident and what happened to the passengers of the plane, a number of people were very sad and wanted to express their sympathy. Humans need to mourn collectively and find sympathy and relief, but they did not allow this to the people. They incited the people to chant. The people chanted but did not commit any violent acts. The people were completely peaceful, but unfortunately we live in a city where the governor, as the head of the provincial security council, had some discretion and management. None of these problems would have arisen. They killed two hundred people and now they have a problem with chanting?”

Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign