Security clashes continue with protesters over downing of Ukrainian plane; theater producer sentenced to three years in prison
In the continuation of security clashes with protesters over the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by the IRGC, this time a theater producer was sentenced to three years in prison.
Masoud Hokamabadi, a researcher and theater producer in Iran, was among those whose theater group boycotted the state-run Fajr Festival last year in protest of the downing of the Ukrainian plane.
Some media outlets inside Iran have declared Mr. Hokamabadi's accusation to be a propaganda activity against the regime and an insult to Ayatollah Khomeini, and have written that the boycott of the Fajr Festival is one of the reasons for this theater producer's sentence to three years in prison.
It was previously reported that members of three theater groups in Mashhad, who were the first groups to withdraw from the Fajr Festival, were arrested and then issued a statement regarding their return to the festival.
Human Rights Watch also reported that in late April 2020, the Islamic Republic's judiciary sentenced at least 13 people to long prison terms simply for peacefully protesting the Revolutionary Guard Corps' deadly attack on a Ukrainian airliner and the Iranian government's initial denial of the attack on that passenger plane.
Earlier in January, Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesman for the Islamic Republic's judiciary, told reporters that about 30 people had been arrested in connection with the protests and an unknown number had been detained in connection with the targeting of the plane.
On the morning of Wednesday, January 8, a Ukrainian Airlines Boeing 737 passenger plane with 176 people on board was shot down by the air defenses of the Revolutionary Guard Corps after taking off from Tehran airport. After days of insistence by Iranian officials that the plane had crashed due to a technical malfunction, the IRGC finally announced that it had mistakenly targeted the plane.
Source: Voice of America
