Student Activist Parisa Rafiee’s Seven-Year Prison Sentence and 74 Lashes Confirmed in Appeals Court
The conviction of student activist Parisa Rafiee to seven years in prison and 74 lashes has been upheld in the appeals court.
Saeid Khalili, Parisa Rafiee’s lawyer, wrote on his Instagram page on Wednesday, September 25, that his client’s sentence “was confirmed as seven years imprisonment and 74 lashes in Branch 36 of the Appeals Court.”
According to the lawyer, the judiciary stated that “the issued sentence, despite all legal objections,” was upheld in the appeals court.
Civil activist Safiya Qara Baghi also wrote on Twitter about Rafiee’s recent sentence, noting that judicial authorities “without holding a court session and in absentia” confirmed the seven-year discretionary imprisonment, 74 lashes, two-year travel ban, and prohibition from membership in political groups for Parisa Rafiee, a labor activist at Tehran University.
During nationwide protests in Iran that spread to over 72 cities starting Thursday, December 28, 2017, around 100 students were arrested across the country. Parisa Rafiee was arrested in March following these protests, along with several other students.
Parisa Rafiee, a labor and student activist, addressed the conditions of Iranian political detainees in an open letter following her seven-year prison sentence issued this April.
She wrote that security forces, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force employ inhumane and violent forms of prisoner abuse, particularly against female prisoners; violence that is used extensively alongside psychological games aimed at extracting confessions and building cases against political activists.
In recent days, Farshte Tusi, a student activist, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment on charges of “propaganda activity against the system through participation in a special Student Day event organized by the Freethinking Islamic Students Association at the university” held in 2016.
Asel Mohammadi is another prominent labor and student activist who has been sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.
Human Rights Watch and the United States have condemned the crackdown and imprisonment of protesting students in Iran.
Human Rights Watch recently issued a statement announcing that Iranian authorities have escalated the suppression of protesting students through prison sentences and creating restrictions on peaceful activities.
Source: Voice of America
