Prison sentences for protesting teenagers

A number of teenage protesters arrested during the nationwide protests were sentenced to prison.

Many young people and teenagers have been arrested since the start of the nationwide protests, and many of them are languishing in prisons indefinitely, while many have been charged with crimes they did not commit and even executed. Among those arrested, many are even underage.

Farhad Navaei, Mobin Rasoultab, and Mehran Hassanzadeh are some of the individuals who were arrested by security forces during the nationwide protests of 1401.

The sentence issued by the criminal court for these three people is imprisonment. Farhad Navaei, a 16-year-old teenager from Mahabad, was sentenced to two years in prison by a special juvenile criminal court in Mahabad on charges of “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against the internal security of the country.” Farhad was arrested by security forces on November 17, 1401 (Aban 27, 1401) and was deprived of the right to a lawyer during his arrest and court hearing. The court also set a bail of 5 billion Tomans for Farhad’s temporary release, which his family was unable to afford.

The Criminal Court of the two cities of Oshnavieh also sentenced Mobin Rasoultab to one year in prison and Mehran Hassanzadeh to nine months. Both of them were arrested by security forces on October 22, 1401 (6 October 1402) and transferred to Urmia Prison, and on November 29, they were transferred from Urmia Prison to Oshnavieh Prison.

Since the protests began, the arrest of minors has drawn criticism from human rights organizations, who have also expressed concern in recent days about the dramatic increase in executions in Iran.

After carrying out many executions in recent months and shooting many children to death, the Islamic Republic is now halting the execution of protesters for the time being and issuing them prison sentences, fearing a renewed uprising among the people.