Trial of Former Student Activist for Criticizing Judiciary Officials and Supporting Workers on Twitter
An informed source told Human Rights Campaign Iran that Siavash Rezaeian, a former student activist at Mazandaran University, has been sentenced to three months and one day in prison for his social media posts criticizing the head of the judiciary and supporting what is known as the “Girls of Revolution Street” movement.
According to the source, the intelligence and public security police of Mazandaran Province arrested and tried this civil activist by monitoring tweets on three topics: criticism of Sadegh Larijani, the former head of the judiciary, support for the Girls of Revolution Street, and tweets about the 2017 street protests known as the “nationwide protests.”
According to the source, Siavash Rezaeian’s tweet about Sadegh Larijani was related to a provincial television report on the discovery of hoarded iron materials. In his tweet, which has since been deleted, Rezaeian wrote: “The discovery of ninety billion tomans of hoarded iron materials belonging to Habibollah Ardeshir, a relative of the Larijani brothers, and the lifting of the seal one hour after seizure.”
The news of the discovery of two warehouses of hoarded rebar in Mazandaran Province was reflected in many domestic media outlets, including Farsnews, without mentioning the name Habibollah Ardeshir.
The campaign learned that this former student activist was also questioned for tweets in support of the Girls of Revolution Street, imprisoned Dervishes, support for star-marked students, and in some cases in response to statements by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Haft Tappeh workers.
In one of his tweets, Rezaeian wrote: “How can we not support the historic movement of #GirlsOfRevolutionStreet? I hope all civilized Iranians on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook will support this peaceful movement. Although I believe that both the disappointed, unemployed, and tired person who protested on the street two weeks ago and these women are right.”
The Girls of Revolution Street refers to young women who went to Tehran’s Revolution Street in protest of mandatory hijab and removed their headscarves, waving them like a flag in the air. Many of these women faced prison sentences after their protests, and some later left Iran.
Regarding the street protests on 19 Bahman 1396 (8 February 2018), Rezaeian tweeted about the nationwide protests: “During the protests a few weeks ago, I thought repression would be the answer and again in the coming months or years, people might come to the streets for different reasons. With the news of the attack on the #Gonabadi_Dervishes at #Haftom_Golestan and the arrest of protesting workers #HaftTappeh, it seems the security forces want protests to happen again.”
The street protests of 2017 began in December and continued until February and became known as the nationwide protests, during which several people, including Sina Ghanbari, Vahid Haydari, and several others, died in prison and thousands were arrested.
Source: Human Rights Campaign Iran
