Student activist Ali Mozaffari sentenced to 30 months in prison

Ali Mozaffari, a student activist at the University of Tehran, was sentenced to 30 months in prison by the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal.

According to news published on human rights networks, Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeals reduced the sentence issued by the Revolutionary Court against student activist Ali Mozaffari from eight years to 30 months.

Mr. Mozaffari is the third student at the University of Tehran to be sentenced to prison. He was previously tried by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court on charges such as “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against security,” “propaganda activities against the system,” and “insulting the leadership,” and was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison for these charges.

According to the issued indictment, the charges relate to "participating in several student gatherings within the university."

This student activist was arrested by Tehran's Ministry of Intelligence agents along with a number of other students during the nationwide protests in January 2017.

In July of last year, Human Rights Watch issued a statement announcing that Iranian authorities had intensified their repression of protesting students by issuing prison sentences and placing restrictions on peaceful activities.

In this statement, the Middle East director of Human Rights Watch also called on Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to order the ministries under his supervision to end the crackdown on students, in accordance with the civil rights promise he made during his election campaign.

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.

The US State Department has repeatedly condemned the violent confrontations and widespread repression of protesters and opponents of the regime under various pretexts, as well as the repeated and persistent violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the ruling regime in that country.

Source: Voice of America