Civil activist Sahand Maali's ten-month prison sentence confirmed

The ten-month prison sentence of "Sahand Maali", a civil activist from Sarab city, was confirmed in the appeals court that was held in the city without the civil activist's presence.

The Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners reported on Monday, May 2, that the ten-month prison sentence of Sahand Maali, a civil activist from Sarab County, which was issued to him by the General and Revolutionary Court of Sarab County on charges of "propaganda against the system by distributing leaflets of ethnic groups," was upheld by Branch 3 of the East Azerbaijan Province Court of Appeal, presided over by Judge Bahloul Alizadeh.

According to the campaign, the ruling that was served on Mr. Maali a few days ago states that, given that the appellant has explicitly confessed in all stages of the proceedings and that the appellant has not appeared at the appeal stage despite being invited to the session to receive justification and defense, no objection has been raised and by rejecting it, based on Article 455, Section A, of the Criminal Procedure Code, the appeal ruling is affirmed in its entirety, and this ruling is final.

Mr. Maali was arrested on January 1, 2018, along with three other civil society activists from Sarab, namely Heydar Mazini, Mohammad Ranjbari, and Vahid Noormohammadi, on the same charge of propaganda against the regime through the distribution of leaflets. Three days later, he was temporarily released on bail of 300 million Tomans until the completion of the trial.

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

Source: Voice of America