Reuters: Iran sentences British-Iranian researcher to 9 years in prison

Reuters reported on Sunday, December 13, citing an Iranian news agency, that a court in Iran has sentenced British-Iranian anthropologist Kamil Ahmadi to nine years in prison and a fine of 600,000 euros (about 544,000 pounds) on charges of conducting subversive research activities.

According to Reuters, the news of this ruling was also reported by news media and human rights groups.

Mr. Ahmadi, an Iranian of Kurdish descent who had researched controversial issues such as child marriage and female genital mutilation in Iran, was detained and imprisoned in the summer of 2019, according to human rights groups; but was released on bail after three months.

After Mr. Ahmadi was arrested by the Iranian government, his wife told the Center for Human Rights in New York that her husband was working independently and that his work was approved by the Iranian government.

Voice of America previously wrote that Kamil Ahmadi had won the Literature and Humanities Award from the World Peace Foundation at George Washington University last year for his research and activities in the field of social harms, with an emphasis on "gender," "children," and "minorities."

Kamil Ahmadi, an anthropologist and researcher, recently spoke to Iranian media and told ISNA that, based on research, there are about 14,000 informal garbage collectors in the country, and 89 percent of garbage collectors are "illegal immigrants."

Human rights activists have accused Iran of arresting dozens of dual citizens in order to use them as pawns in deals with other countries.

The United States has repeatedly and on various occasions condemned the Islamic Republic's hostage-taking and imprisonment of American and other citizens, as well as the repeated and persistent violations of their rights by the Iranian regime.

Source: Voice of America