Prison for Protesters Against Missile Strike on Passenger Plane; Bahareh Hedayat: Those 176 Others Won’t Return, Neither Will November’s Victims

Bahareh Hedayat, a civil activist and master’s student in political science at the University of Tehran, has been sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison and banned from membership in groups for participating in protests against the missile strike on a Ukrainian aircraft.

Bahareh Hedayat, who was assaulted and arrested on February 10, 2020, after being summoned to the University of Tehran’s detention facility, was released on a bail of 200 million tomans. Her trial was held on February 10, 2020, and Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced her to prison and membership ban.

On Saturday, July 26, Bahareh Hedayat announced on her personal Twitter that the court verdict had been delivered to her, sentencing her to 4 years in prison on charges of gathering and conspiracy for participating in a gathering in front of Amir Kabir University protesting the destruction of the Ukrainian aircraft, and 8 months in prison on charges of propaganda against the state for her tweets on the matter.

According to Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, 4 years of this sentence are enforceable.

Ms. Hedayat explained that as a supplementary penalty, she has been sentenced to 2 years of ban from membership in groups and 3 months of service in an elderly care home.

This student activist, in response to the verdict, wrote that “this is just a sentence of several years of imprisonment and ban, but those 176 people (victims of the Ukrainian aircraft) are gone and won’t return, nor will November’s victims.”

Bahareh Hedayat, born in 1981, is a student and women’s activist, former member of the central council and spokesperson for the Office of Consolidating Unity, and a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign for Changing Laws Discriminatory Against Women. She was arrested on December 30, 2009, and sentenced to 9 and a half years in prison, consisting of 2 years imprisonment for “insulting the Supreme Leader,” 6 months imprisonment for “insulting the President,” and 5 years for “actions against national security and spreading lies.” This prominent student activist was released in 2016 after serving 7 and a half years. Bahareh Hedayat received the Swedish Herald Adelsvärd Award in 2012 for “extraordinary courage and commitment to active justice in the face of human rights violations in Iran.”

However, Bahareh Hedayat is not the only one sentenced to prison for protesting the downing of the Ukrainian passenger aircraft. While none of those who ordered the missile strike on the Ukrainian passenger aircraft have been summoned, and Islamic Republic officials have announced that the person who pulled the trigger is in custody, dozens of protesters against the missile strike on the aircraft have received prison sentences.

On the morning of Wednesday, January 8, 2020, the Ukrainian aircraft with 176 passengers crashed a few minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini Airport due to a direct hit from a Revolutionary Guard missile in the vicinity of Tehran, killing all on board. Islamic Republic officials attributed the crash to a technical fault, and three days after the disaster, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic formally acknowledged in a statement that the Revolutionary Guard’s air defense had made an error and mistakenly targeted the aircraft. They called “human error” the cause of this horrific tragedy.

From Saturday, January 11, 2020, thousands of people in Tehran and various Iranian cities, especially students, held protest gatherings to protest the downing of the Ukrainian aircraft by the Revolutionary Guard. In some cases, these gatherings turned into clashes and violence.

In the city of Mashhad, Masoud Hakam-Abadi, a theater artist and producer, who was arrested on January 28 after withdrawing from participation in the Fajr Theater Festival to protest the downing of the Ukrainian passenger aircraft by the Revolutionary Guard, was sentenced to three years in prison.

Mostafa Hashemi-Zadeh, a civil engineering student at the University of Tehran, and Amir-Mohammad Sharifi, another University of Tehran student, have also been sentenced to prison for the same reason. Amir-Mohammad Sharifi was sentenced to three years in prison, and Mostafa Hashemi-Zadeh announced on his personal Twitter that “due to participation in a student gathering in January 2020 at the University of Tehran campus and protesting the downing of the Ukrainian aircraft and the manner of its crash, I have been sentenced by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court to 5 years of deprivation of liberty on charges of conspiracy and gathering against national security and 1 year of deprivation of liberty and 74 lashes on charges of disruption of public order and peace as the principal penalty and two years of prohibition from entering student dormitories and three months of free public service in Tehran Niayesh Psychiatric Hospital.”

In the city of Amol, prison and lashing sentences have been issued for more than 16 protesters against the downing of the aircraft. Protesters who intended to light candles on Sunday, January 12, 2020, at the Qaim Square of this city to express sympathy with the families of the Ukrainian aircraft victims were arrested by military and security forces. Shoura Fekri, Mohsen Rezaei, Meysam Khalili, Mehdi Raei, and Salman Farrokhi are 5 of these protesters who were arrested by Revolutionary Guard intelligence and each sentenced to 5 months in prison by Branch 1 of the Amol Revolutionary Court. 11 other citizens of Amol; Amin Forouhi, Ali Shekari, Azadeh and Aydin and Aida Javani, Alireza Mohammad-Nezhad, Farshte Mahmudi, Hossein Mostafa-Nia, Meysam Khodabandeh-Lou, Hamid Mohammad-Irani, Amin Forouhi, and Mohammad-Reza Shojai, who were arrested by security police, were charged by Branch 1 of the Amol Revolutionary Court with propaganda activity against the state and sentenced to a total of 88 months in prison, and by the Amol Criminal Court on charges of disruption of public order to 5 months in prison and 20 lashes. The criminal court’s sentence is suspended for one year.

Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign