Three Iranian Writers Sentenced to 15 and a Half Years in Prison
Branch 36 of Tehran’s Court of Appeals sentenced three Iranian writers to 15 and a half years in prison. Reza Khandan Mahabadi, Baktash Abtin, and Kiyan Bajen had previously been sentenced to 18 years in prison by judge Mohammad Moghisseh in the primary court.
The Iranian Writers Association announced on Sunday, December 29, through its social media accounts the delivery of the appellate court’s verdict for three of its members. The Writers Association stated that Branch 36 of the Court of Appeals, headed by Judge Zargar, upheld the primary verdicts of Reza Khandan (Mahabadi) and Baktash Abtin exactly as issued and reduced the sentence of Kiyan Bajen.
Each of the three writers was sentenced to six years in prison in the primary court, which was held on the seventh and eighth of Ordibehesht of the current year (1398 Persian calendar) under the presidency of Judge Moghisseh, on charges of “propaganda against the system” and “assembly and conspiracy with the intent to act against the country’s security.”
According to the Writers Association report, the specifics of the charges against these three individuals include: membership in the Iranian Writers Association, publication of the association’s internal newsletter, preparation of a research book on the fifty-year history of the association for internal distribution, statements by the association, presence at the graves of victims of serial political murders including Jafar Pouyandeh and Mohammad Mokhtari, and participation in the annual commemoration ceremony of Ahmad Shamlou.
Branch 36 of Tehran’s Court of Appeals upheld the sentences issued for Reza Khandan (Mahabadi) and Baktash Abtin (both members of the association’s secretariat board) without summoning the defendants and their lawyers, and reduced Kiyan Bajen’s sentence to three and a half years of discretionary imprisonment due to his lack of criminal record.
The conviction of these three writers in the primary court faced widespread reactions. The Iranian Writers Association itself stated in a statement that the judicial verdict is not only related to these three writers but is a conviction of everyone who wishes to enjoy the right to freedom of expression.
According to the Writers Association, the purpose of such trials and verdicts in recent decades has been to “spread fear and terror and suppress freedom of expression.”
Likewise, a large group of Iranian writers, poets, critics, and journalists expressed their “clear protest” in a letter addressed to officials of executive and judicial authorities in June 2019 against “unfair procedures of the judicial system and security treatment of writers and men of letters” and called for the annulment of “unjust and freedom-crushing” sentences against three members of the Iranian Writers Association.
