Three-Year Prison Sentence and 74 Lashes Handed to Student for Criticizing Leader and Government Officials

An informed source regarding the situation of Mojtaba Dadashi, a political science student who has been sentenced to three years imprisonment and 74 lashes for publishing a critical video, told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: «This young man was convicted of three charges in a single court session held in secret solely because of a six or seven-minute critical video he published in February. This is sheer injustice, and the court’s verdict is merely a sign of political retaliation.»

Mojtaba Dadashi, born in 1995, a final-year political science student at Hakhamaneshi University in Sabzevar, was charged with two counts of «insulting the leader» and «propaganda against the system» in the Sabzevar Revolutionary Court and also charged with «insulting the heads of the three branches of government» in the Sabzevar Criminal Court. Both courts held a single closed-door session for him on the same day (March 16, 2019) presided over by Judge Mohammad Gholami. According to a ruling he received on April 4, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment on the charge of insulting the leader, one year imprisonment on the charge of propaganda against the system, and 74 lashes on the charge of insulting the heads of the three branches of government.

On February 4, 2019, Mojtaba Dadashi published a several-minute video on his Twitter account in which, after introducing himself as «a person opposed to existing oppression and repression», he criticized the Iranian government for responding to workers and women with batons. He said, «This system is for a minority that has been bleeding this country dry for forty years. This system is for the elite, not for me and you..»

An informed source regarding Mojtaba Dadashi’s situation told the Campaign about how he was arrested: «Mojtaba published this video on February 4 and one day after the February 11 rallies, a summons was sent to him by the Third Branch of the Sabzevar Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office with a complaint from the Sabzevar Security Service, instructing him to report to the prosecutor’s office. Mojtaba went to the prosecutor’s office the next day on February 24 but was arrested there and taken to Sabzevar Prison. In protest of his arrest and the fact that he had committed no crime, he began a hunger strike from that moment. Mojtaba was released four days later on a 2-billion-toman bail.»

Regarding inappropriate treatment of this student during the four days of detention, the source said: «They had shaved this student’s head completely. They took him to prison in handcuffs and shackles, and during a single court session, he was not treated with respect. This is not befitting for a student of this country. He merely criticized and committed no crime.»

His trial for the three charges was held approximately one month later on March 16, and the ruling was delivered to him less than a month after that.

This source, explaining that Mojtaba Dadashi, due to the unjust trial process, said: «He is not even requesting an appeal as a protest against his sentence, which was issued through an illegal process. Filing for an appeal would mean accepting the court’s procedure, which he absolutely does not. Mojtaba did not have a lawyer because he thought he would definitely be acquitted. He wrote a comprehensive defense brief himself and appeared at the trial with several of his professors, but they said the trial was closed and his professors were not allowed to attend.»

Regarding his other activities, the source told the Campaign: «Mojtaba only occasionally wrote his critical opinions about the political and social situation of society on Twitter and his Telegram channel. Once in December 2017, during popular protests, when Allameh Mohammadi Araqi, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, came to Sabzevar University to give a speech, he expressed his protest at that lecture. Parts of his criticism during Allameh Araqi’s speech were also published on websites. But apart from these, he had no other activities.»

After his sentence was delivered, Mojtaba Dadashi posted a video on his Twitter account describing his sentence as brutal. In this video, he said: «I was prosecuted for criticizing the reformist and principlist officials of the system and the person of the leader with unrelated charges, and now I have been sentenced in the most brutal way possible to three years imprisonment and 74 lashes.» He continued: « Even though Khamenei said on March 21, 2018 in Mashhad that critics of the government are free and no one should be opposed to them, I was treated worse than anyone.»

In this video, he challenged Iran’s leader and government officials to a debate: «I challenge Khamenei and the senior officials of the system to a public debate. Khamenei said that reformist and principlist officials should not fear the people…»,«I am confident that soon the people’s cup will overflow. My back is ready for your lashes.»,«Is our country’s problem the hijab or discrimination or poverty and repression.»

Source: Campaign for Human Rights in Iran