November protests: Five citizens in Mahshahr port acquitted of charges
HRANA News Agency – Nader Reyhani, Nader Taeimi, Morteza Ebadi, Hamid Ghobishawi, and Walid Asakereh, among those arrested during the November 2019 protests, were acquitted of the charges by Branch 1 of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office in Bandar Mahshahr.
According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, the Bandar Mahshahr Prosecutor's Office issued a verdict of acquittal for Nader Reyhani, Nader Taeimi, Morteza Ebadi, Hamid Ghobishawi, and Walid Asakereh, five citizens arrested during the November 2019 protests.
According to this verdict, which was issued by Branch 1 of the Investigation Department of the Bandar Mahshahr Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office and recently notified to them, these individuals were acquitted of charges of acting against national security, disrupting public order, and destroying government property.
These citizens were all arrested by security forces on December 1, 2019, in connection with the November 2019 protests in Taleghani Mahshahr town, on charges including propaganda against the regime, and transferred to the Intelligence Department detention center. After being held in solitary confinement for a long time, they were temporarily released after completing the interrogation process and posting a bail of 500 million Tomans, pending the completion of the trial.
On December 19 of this year, Branch 1 of the Mahshahr Port Prosecutor's Office issued a restraining order against these citizens on charges of "propaganda against national security, disturbing public order, and destroying government property." The case of these individuals was referred to Branch 101 of Mahshahr Port Criminal Court 2, after the Intelligence Department objected to the ruling, and ultimately a verdict of acquittal was issued.
These individuals had previously been arrested and convicted in 2017. Iman Soleimani, the lawyer defending these citizens, told HRANA about the progress of this case: “Although my clients had served their 8-month sentence for the previous case, the Intelligence Directorate had again cited the charges from their previous case in the new case.”
Nationwide protests in November 2019
The November protests are a series of nationwide protests that began on Friday, November 14, 2019, with the announcement of an unprecedented increase in gasoline prices in dozens of Iranian cities, with an unprecedented presence of protesters on the streets, and continued for several days. Mohammad Javad Kolivand, a representative of the people of Karaj in the parliament, said that these protests took place in 719 places in the country. Seyyed Hossein Naqvi Hosseini, the then spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the parliament, also announced the number of detainees in the recent protests at around 7,000. According to reports from human rights organizations, hundreds of people also died as a result of these bloody protests.
You can read the full version of HRANA's report on these protests under the title "Bloody November" at this link.
Source: HRANA
