Three Iranian writers sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison
Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal sentenced three Iranian writers to 15 years and six months in prison. Reza Khandan Mahabadi, Bektash Abtin, and Keyvan Bajan had previously been sentenced to 18 years in prison by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh in the lower court.
On Sunday, December 29, the Iranian Writers' Association announced on its social media accounts that the Court of Appeal had issued a verdict against three of its members. The Association wrote that Branch 36 of the Court of Appeal, headed by Judge Zargar, confirmed the initial verdicts of Reza Khandan (Mahabadi) and Bektash Abtin and reduced the sentence of Keyvan Bajan.
Each of the three writers was sentenced to six years in prison in a trial held on May 27 and 28 of this year (2019) under the chairmanship of Judge Moghiseh, on charges of "propaganda against the system" and "gathering and colluding with the intention of acting against the security of the country."
According to the Writers' Association report, the charges against these three individuals include membership in the Writers' Association of Iran, publishing the association's internal newsletter, preparing a research book on the association's fifty-year history for internal publication, statements by the association, attending the graves of victims of serial political murders, including Jafar Poyandeh and Mohammad Mokhtari, and participating in the annual ceremony commemorating Ahmad Shamloo.
Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeals, without inviting the defendants or their lawyers, has confirmed the sentences issued to Reza Khandan (Mahabadi) and Bektash Abtin (both members of the Association's Board of Secretaries) and reduced Keyvan Bajan's sentence to three and a half years of imprisonment due to his lack of criminal record.
The conviction of these three writers in the lower court was met with a lot of reactions. The Iranian Writers' Association itself wrote in a statement that the judicial system's verdict is not only about these three writers, but also about all those who want to enjoy the right to freedom of expression.
According to the Writers' Association, the goal of such trials and sentences in recent decades is to "spread fear and suppress freedom of expression."
Also, in June 2019, a large group of Iranian writers, poets, critics, and journalists expressed their "explicit protest" against the "unfair practices of the judicial system and security forces' treatment of writers and writers" in a letter addressed to officials of the executive and judicial systems, and called for the cancellation of the "unfair and freedom-killing" sentences against three members of the Iranian Writers' Association.
