Four civil society activists sentenced to a total of 8 years in prison by the Court of Appeal
Akbar Azad, Alireza Farshi, Behnam Sheikhi, and Hamid Manafi Nadarli, four civil society activists who had previously been sentenced to long prison terms and exile in the first instance court, have been sentenced to a total of 8 years in prison and 8 years in exile in the appeals court.
An informed source told VOA on Monday, January 20 that the appeals court hearing for the four Azerbaijani (Turkish) civil society activists who were arrested in March 2013 during a ceremony commemorating International Mother Language Day in Tehran's Nasim city was held on January 20 at Branch 54 of the Tehran Appeals Court, presided over by Judge Babaei, and the verdict issued on Monday, January 20 was communicated to Seyyed Mohammad Faghihi, the lawyer for the case.
VOA cannot independently confirm the details of this report.
According to this informed person, during the hearing of the case, these activists and their defense attorney, while rejecting the charge of "participating in forming a crowd to disrupt the country's security," called the basis for the case and the judicial process illegal and declared, "Any verdict issued in this court, regardless of its quality or quantity, will be considered the view of the Islamic Republic of Iran's government on the issue of the mother tongue of non-Persian ethnic groups and will be recorded in history."
Based on available information, each of these individuals has been sentenced to 2 years in prison and 2 years in exile by Branch 54 of the Tehran Court of Appeals.
Previously, Voice of America reported that Alireza Farshi, Akbar Azad, Behnam Sheikhi, and Hamid Manafi were sentenced in 2016 by Branch 1 of the Baharestan Revolutionary Court to 15 years in prison and two years in exile to Baghmalek County in Khuzestan Province, 10 years in prison and two years in exile to Darehshahr County in Ilam Province, 10 years in prison and two years in exile to Masjed Soleiman County in Khuzestan Province, and 10 years in prison and two years in exile to Azna City in Lorestan Province, respectively.
This informed person told VOA that two weeks after the appeals court hearing, Alireza Farshi, who had been following the appeals court's outcome, was arrested by security forces on Wednesday, January 8, for unknown reasons and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison.
This is not the first time that Azerbaijani activists have been sentenced to long prison sentences. In early October of this year, the 8-year prison sentence of Abbas Lisani, another Azerbaijani activist, which was issued by the First Branch of the Ardabil Revolutionary Court headed by Judge Khodadadi, was increased to 15 years by Nasser Atabati, the head of the First Branch of the Ardabil Court of Appeals.
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 and on various occasions condemned the violent confrontations and widespread repression of protesters, 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
