Punishment of a Journalist: Marzieh Amiri Sentenced to 10 Years and 148 Lashes

Marzieh Amiri, an arrested journalist for Shargh newspaper, was sentenced by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh to (10 years and six months in prison) and (148 lashes). This heavy sentence was communicated to her lawyer two weeks after her trial. Marzieh Amiri was arrested on May 11 (International Workers’ Day) while covering labor protests and sent to Evin Prison. According to the journalist’s lawyer, she has been charged with “11 charges” for this reason. 

Her lawyer, Arash Dowlatshahi, told Borna News Agency on September 25 about his client's sentence, stating that he could not provide details of the case. He said that the journalist was being prosecuted mainly for her "activity on social networks such as Twitter and Telegram, and a total of eleven charges have been filed against Ms. Amiri."

The lawyer continued: "Marzieh Amiri was present in Baharestan Square on International Labor Day as a reporter for Shargh newspaper, where she was arrested and a bail order was issued for her on charges of disturbing public order. Since she already has an open case, the order issued will eventually be converted into temporary detention, to which charges will also be added." The lawyer did not mention the details of the charges, but it had previously been said that Ms. Amiri's charges include acting against national security, "propaganda against the system," and "disturbing public order."

Arash Dowlatshahi, protesting the verdict of his client and others, said: "These verdicts issued to students, critics, and journalists are not in the best interest of our judicial system, nor are they in the best interest of our system. Similarly, Ms. Amiri had also stated in her interrogations that she believes in the principles of the system and has criticisms and objections within the same framework."

For the first time, Samira Amiri, the journalist's sister, announced the verdict on her Twitter account on Saturday, September 2nd: "Marzieh was sentenced to 148 lashes and a total of ten and a half years in prison, six of which are enforceable." #MarziehAmiri #LaborDayDetainees"

Marzieh Amiri, a journalist for the economic section of Shargh newspaper and a social sciences student at Tehran University, has been in temporary detention for more than three months now. Ms. Amiri was arrested on May 1, 2019, the day of the protests.

Marzieh Amiri’s trial was held on August 12 in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh. Two days after the trial on August 14, Ms. Amiri’s lawyer, Arash Dowlatshahi, told Ensaf News Agency that the evidence against her was collected at a time when Ms. Amiri was “in a special situation” and was also deprived of a lawyer at that stage. The lawyer said that since the court focused more on the issues of his client’s preliminary investigation case: “We asked the court to pay more attention to our defenses in the trial session than to the cases that were collected during the preliminary investigation stage, without the presence of her lawyer, and under the special conditions that she was in.”

Arash Dowlatshahi stated that his client was kept in isolation at the time of her confession and did not even have access to a lawyer, adding: "Marzieh Amiri has been 'under observation separate from others' in various cases, and this means that she was not in the right situation even to confess against herself, so this is also true for other prisoners who confessed against her."

 Invegil also spoke about the value of relying on the confessions of others against the accused in judgment: "In law, the statements of the accused themselves can only be relied on under natural circumstances; that is, the circumstances must be natural for the confession to be made. Therefore, the accused can only confess against himself under certain circumstances for this confession to be relied on."

About 20 days after the arrest of Marzieh Amiri, Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesman for the judiciary, described her accusation as security-related and said about Marzieh Amiri's lack of permission to meet with her lawyer: "She has been accused of a criminal act in the security field, and not just any lawyer can represent her in this context."

Esmaili is referring to the note on Article 48 of the new Criminal Procedure Code, according to which in security crimes during the preliminary investigation stages, defendants must choose their lawyers from a list approved by the judiciary. In fact, they have been denied the right to freely choose a lawyer.

Marzieh Amiri suffers from epilepsy, and her lawyer said in another interview that due to this illness, she has repeatedly requested her temporary release until the final verdict is issued, but for unknown reasons, this has not been approved. 

On September 2nd, the verdict of not only Marzieh Amiri but also Kiomars Marzban, a satirist and journalist, was announced. However, the situation of cinema and theater photographer Noushin Jafari remains unclear since her arrest, and her family has not been able to visit her. Several other journalists are currently in prison on similar charges: Hengameh Shahidi, sentenced to 9 years and three months in prison, Masoud Kazemi, sentenced to four and a half years in prison, two years of which are executable,

Widespread reactions to a journalist's strange verdict

Saba Azarpeik wrote to Ebrahim Raisi on her Twitter account: "Mr. #Raisi, I hope you don't make the same mistake as Mr. Sadegh Larijani: 'Disregard for public opinion' For us, Marzieh Amiri is an economic journalist who went to cover the Labor Day ceremony and was arrested and now sentenced to six years in prison! This means injustice. Do you have any other explanations or is this the narrative? #PublicOpinion"

Journalist Zohra Alwandi also wrote on Twitter: "I wish the judge in the #Samen_Hajj case was also in charge of the #Marzia_Amiri case!" Setting up an unauthorized financial institution with multiple branches across the country, granting 848 facilities worth 50 trillion rials to one person, and 4400 billion tomans in debt to depositors are just a small part of Mir Ali's crimes." A user named Golden Breed wrote on his Twitter account: "Thank God that satirist Kiyomars Marzban and journalist Marzieh Amiri wrote in the news, otherwise we would have been worried. God forbid, embezzlement, economic corruption, and aggression were the things that gave this heavy sentence!" Atiyeh Amiri wrote on her Twitter account: "Yesterday I thought so much about Mehdi Hajati, Farhad Meysami, Nasrin Sotoudeh, and Marzieh Amiri. I asked myself so much, do the younger generation know why these people are in prison? Or have they even heard their names? That last night I dreamed of being in prison until morning and I am plotting an escape for each and every one of them." Zahra Tohidi, a political science student, wrote on her Twitter account: "It is supposed to be more than the sentence." Let us be intimidated by the 10 years in prison for #Marzieh_Amiri and the cries of the pressure of #Nooshin_Jafari's arrest and... Yes, they are really scary. Those who have no principles for gaining, maintaining, and displaying power are scary. Neither human, legal, nor religious principles. P.S.: But before us, you in the core of power should be afraid of each other." Another user named Zwei Glass wrote on his Twitter: "No matter how much we write about the judicial verdicts of Kiyomars Marzban, Marzieh Amiri, and others, it is not enough. The problem is that we don't know what to say. We don't know what to write. What can we say? We have nothing but a sigh, a great regret, and a loud cry." Another user named Alireza Wafen wrote on his Twitter: "It's interesting that every protest against a terrible injustice is linked to espionage! I'm getting sick of this situation.. North Korea is not in such a mess either. God, who cursed this cat-shaped earth? #Marzieh_Amiri »

Source: Human Rights Campaign