Court of Appeals: Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi sentenced to 16 years in prison
HRANA News Agency – Attorney Mostafa Nili announced the confirmation of the verdict of Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, detained students of Sharif University of Technology, in Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal. The two students, who are still being held in the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention center known as Ward 209 of Evin Prison, were previously sentenced to 16 years in prison each in the first instance court. By applying Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, a harsher sentence of 10 years is applicable to each of them.
According to HRANA News Agency, citing Emedat, Attorney General Mostafa Nili announced that the appeals court has upheld the verdict of Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi.
The lawyer stated in this regard: “Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeals, located in the Revolutionary Court, confirmed the original verdict of Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi. These two elite students of Sharif University were sentenced to 10 years in prison in the original court on charges of sabotage, gathering and collusion with the intention of acting against national security to 5 years, and propaganda against the system to 1 year. The Court of Appeals confirmed this verdict exactly and accordingly; the harsher sentence, i.e. 10 years in prison, will be applicable.”
According to him, “This is despite the fact that there were objections that we had pointed out in our appeal bills. One of the most important arguments is the formal objection regarding the change in the title of the charge, which stated that the formal rules of the Criminal Procedure Code were not observed in the trial court. However, the appeal court did not pay attention to this issue and upheld the verdict exactly.”
Nili continued: “We will pursue the retrial in the Supreme Court in the next stages. Given the confirmation of the verdict, the next step is to retrial in the Supreme Court, which we will pursue in the next stages. In addition, we hope that, given the issuance of the final verdict in the case, our clients will be released from security ward 209.”
Mustafa Nili added: “These two young men have been imprisoned in security ward 209 for more than two years, and we hope that given the final verdict, at least Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi will be released from this ward and transferred to a general ward.”
Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student, and Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student at Sharif University of Technology, were arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents on April 12, 2020, and transferred to the agency's detention center, known as Ward 209 of Evin Prison. It is said that the arrest of these students was carried out by plainclothes officers without a warrant and accompanied by beatings.
On May 6, 2020, Gholamhossein Esmaili, spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, accused these students of collaborating with an opposition group (the People's Mujahedin).
A short time later, Aida Younesi, Ali Younesi's sister, denied these accusations by posting a video on social media, citing her parents' prison history in the 1960s as the reason for the accusations.
It is worth noting that Amir Hossein Moradi is the silver medalist of the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2017, and Ali Younesi is the silver medalist of the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2016 and the gold medalist of the Astronomy Olympiad in 2016. Ali Younesi also won the gold medal in the 12th World Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad held in China, taking first place.
Source: HRANA
