Continued repression of civil activists in Iran; Azerbaijani activist sentenced to prison

Continuing the process of suppressing civil activists, dissidents, and opponents of the regime's policies in Iran, the Islamic Republic's judiciary has sentenced an Azerbaijani civil activist to six months in prison.

A source close to the family of Azerbaijani (Turkish) civil activist Sajjad Shahiri told VOA that Mr. Shahiri was sentenced to six months in prison on charges of "propaganda against the regime" despite no evidence or documents supporting this charge being presented in court, and Mr. Shahiri himself did not admit to this charge during the hearing of the case.

The informed source, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told VOA that the hearing on Sajjad Shahiri's case was held on November 11 of this year by Judge Amir Kioumarsi, head of Branch 103 of the Criminal Court of the Two Cities of Naqadeh, and was announced in person on Tuesday, November 17. He said that the civil activist is scheduled to appeal the ruling in the coming days.

According to this informed source, this Azerbaijani activist was initially charged with two charges, but he was acquitted of the charge of "membership in the Gamage group" in the issued verdict.

According to information provided to VOA by this informed source, the charges against this civil activist in court include “participation in the November 2019 protests, a picture of Mr. Shahiri next to a placard with separatist themes at the Tabriz Stadium, and insulting Qassem Soleimani on Instagram.” However, according to this informed source, these charges are untrue and no evidence or documents were presented in court to prove them.

The informed source said that Sajjad Shahiri was arrested by security forces in Naqadeh on January 16, 2019. He was initially taken to the Tabriz Ministry of Intelligence detention center and transferred to Tabriz prison after 45 days of interrogation. Mr. Shahiri was finally released from prison on March 17 of the same year after posting a bail of 500 million Tomans, temporarily pending the completion of the trial.

According to this informed source, Mr. Shahiri was repeatedly threatened with rape and death by his interrogators during his detention, and they threatened to harm his family as well. When Mr. Shahiri’s family members inquired about his condition, they were falsely told that the civil activist had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for being a member of the Gamage group. According to this informed source, this pressure caused Mr. Shahiri to go on a hunger strike for five days during his detention and demand to meet with the judge in his case.

This informed source told VOA that Mr. Shahiri had previously been arrested on July 24 of last year for his activity on Instagram and on charges of "propaganda against the regime," and that time Judge Kiyomartsi had sentenced him to 3 months in prison.

This is not the first time that Azerbaijani activists have been arrested or sentenced to prison terms following unfair trials.