Mohammad Najafi, a lawyer imprisoned in Iran, sentenced to prison again
Mohammad Najafi, a lawyer and imprisoned human rights activist, was sentenced to 6 months in prison by the Revolutionary Court.
According to the Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners, this lawyer, who is imprisoned in Arak Prison, has been sentenced to 6 months in prison by Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, headed by Judge Shahmirzadi.
According to this report, this sentence was issued due to a speech given by Mohammad Najafi during a ceremony in 2016 at the home of Gohar Eshghi, the mother of Sattar Beheshti.
This sentence is being issued to this lawyer after he was previously sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 40 million rials by Branch 8 of the Central Province Court of Appeals on Sunday, July 2, on charges of "spreading lies with the intention of disturbing public opinion."
Mr. Najafi had also previously been sentenced to one year in prison in another case, in Branch 102 of the Arak Criminal Court, on the same charge, which was confirmed by Branch 9 of the Central Province Court of Appeals.
This lawyer was released on April 28 of this year, while serving his three-year sentence in Arak Prison on charges of propaganda activities in favor of groups and organizations opposed to the regime and insulting the leadership, with an "amnesty." However, just four days after his release, he was transferred to Arak Central Prison to serve his ten-year prison sentence in connection with the events of January 2017 and on charges of "collaborating with hostile states."
He was arrested in 2017 after reporting on Vahid Heydari, one of the protesters in January of that year who died in a detention center in Arak.
In late December, the Center for Human Rights Defenders presented its 2019 "Human Rights Activist" award to the imprisoned lawyer and human rights activist.
Also, on Thursday, December 27, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe issued a statement awarding the 2019 Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe Human Rights Award to Mohammad Najafi, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Abdolfattah Soltani, and Amirsalar Davoudi, four lawyers imprisoned in Iran.
The US State Department has repeatedly and on various occasions condemned the violent confrontations and widespread repression of protesters and human rights activists in Iran, 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
