Iran continues to crack down on civil society activists; a Kurdish couple sentenced to prison
A civil activist couple from the Kurdistan province of Iran who refused to attend a court hearing in mid-November to protest the unfairness of their case have been sentenced to suspended prison terms after being arrested and appearing in court.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons told VOA that the couple, Farideh Veisi and Sirous Abbasi, were arrested by security forces in the city of Dehgolan on a warrant issued on January 29 after they refused to attend their second court session on Monday, November 1. They were then transferred to Branch 1 of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Saeedi, and tried.
According to this informed source, the sentence of one year in prison, suspended for three years, was issued on Tuesday, January 13, and the sentence was communicated to them upon their appearance in the Revolutionary Court.
This informed source also told VOA that the two civil society activists, who faced multiple charges at the time of their arrest, including acting against national security, membership in Kurdish opposition parties, and several other charges, were acquitted of these charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence and sentenced to prison only on the charge of "propaganda against the system."
According to this source, examples of the accusation of propaganda against the regime in the indictment include "walking and filming the protest against the death sentence of the late Ramin Hossein Panahi and launching a protest rally in Dehgolan in opposition to Turkey's attack on Rojava, Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan), as well as participating in a rally in front of the Sanandaj Justice Department to protest the arrest of Ms. Zahra Mohammadi, a Kurdish language teacher." According to this informed source, all of these examples are considered "civil activities" and none of them are considered "crimes."
An informed source previously told VOA that the two civil society activists were violently arrested on January 14, 2019, when security forces from the Dehgolan city of Iran raided their workplace, the "Zanst" scientific and educational center. According to the informed source, they spent at least two months in a prison in Sanandaj, known as the "Reform and Correction Center," during which time each of them was tortured and forced to confess in front of a camera.
These two civil activists were finally released from prison on March 15 of the same year, after the end of the interrogations and until the end of the trial, after posting a total of 150 million Tomans in bail.
Human rights organizations say that the Islamic Republic does not handle accusations fairly, and that sometimes innocent people have been tried and even executed.
The US State Department has also repeatedly and on various occasions condemned the violent confrontations and widespread repression of protesters, as well as the repeated and persistent violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the ruling regime in that country.
Source: Voice of America
