File-making in prison; Hamzeh Darvish sentenced to prison

HRANA News Agency – Hamzeh Darvish, a Sunni prisoner in Rasht's Lakan Prison, was sentenced to 2 years and 1 month in prison by Branch 1 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court for a new case recently opened against him.

According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, Hamzeh Darvish, a Sunni prisoner in Rasht's Lakan Prison, was sentenced to prison for a new case recently opened against him.

According to this verdict, issued by Branch 1 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court on March 4 and notified to him on Wednesday, March 8, Mr. Darvish has been sentenced to 18 months and one day in prison for charges of insulting the leader and founder of the Islamic Republic, and to 7 months and 16 days in prison for charges of propaganda against the system.

On February 4, his interrogation session was held online at Branch 16 of the Rasht City Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office, where he was informed of the charges. The case was filed based on a complaint from the Ministry of Intelligence and based on the publication of an audio file of Mr. Darvish on cyberspace in which he spoke about the conditions of his detention in prison.

Hamza Darwish, a 28-year-old prisoner from Talesh, had previously stated in statements that in 2014, forces of a fundamentalist group based in Syria tricked him into taking him to Turkey and then transferring him to Syria. He was in an ISIS prison for a while and then, after receiving a letter of safety from the Iranian embassy in Turkey, he escaped to Iran and introduced himself to the security forces.