Five-Year Prison Sentence for Student Activist Leila Hosseinzadeh Upheld
Amir Raisiyan, a lawyer, announced on Sunday, December 5, that the five-year prison sentence for Leila Hosseinzadeh, a student activist, was upheld by Branch 36 of Tehran’s Court of Appeals.
Ms. Hosseinzadeh had previously been sentenced by Branch 28 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to five years in prison and two years of restriction from cyberspace on charges of “assembly and conspiracy with intent to act against national security.”
According to her defense lawyer, the basis of this charge was “organizing a small gathering of students” and Leila Hosseinzadeh’s participation in this gathering. The mentioned ceremony was held to celebrate the birthday and commemorate Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam, a imprisoned student and Gonabadi dervish, in front of Sharif University of Technology.
Amir Raisiyan emphasized that this sentence “was explicitly issued in violation of several provisions of the penal code.”
Leila Hosseinzadeh was a student at Tehran University and was among those arrested during the December 2017 protests. She was released on bail after two weeks.
This student activist was sentenced in March 2017 by Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to five years in prison on charges of “assembly and conspiracy against national security” and one year in prison on charges of “propaganda against the regime.”
Additionally, a two-year “ban on leaving the country” was imposed as a supplementary punishment in her case.
This sentence was reduced on June 21, 2019, from the first charge to 30 months in prison and was upheld in its entirety regarding the second charge and supplementary punishment. According to Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, only 30 months of imprisonment was enforceable in Ms. Hosseinzadeh’s case.
This student activist was arrested by security forces at her home on August 27, 2019. After ten days in detention at one of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence safe houses, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin Prison to serve her 30-month sentence.
Leila Hosseinzadeh was granted leave from Evin Prison’s women’s ward in late March 2020 and was ultimately granted a pardon.
Source: Radio Farda
