May 04 2020

Iranian courts in the past days have sentenced several individuals arrested during January 2020 protests to prison as well as flogging.

Tehran Revolutionary Court has sentenced Seyed Mostafa Hashemzadeh to five years in prison and 74 lashes for taking part in student demonstration against the regime’s downing of Ukrainian airliner, flight PS752 in January 2020.

The ruling also includes three months of unpaid community service and a two-year ban on the entry of this Tehran University student activist to the university’s dormitory. Mostafa Hashemzadeh is a student of Civil Engineering at Tehran University.

The Revolutionary Court of Tehran had earlier issued a three-month sentence for another Tehran University student activist, Amir Mohammad Sharifi.

He had been charged for “propaganda against the state” when he took pictures of plainclothes agents entering the dormitory and taking away the belongings of Mostafa Hashemzadeh.

Earlier the Amol Revolutionary Court judged by Morteza Mahdavi had issued jail sentences of a total of 88 months for 11 people for attending the January 2020 protests.

One of the reasons given for the guilty verdict was that they lit a candle in sympathy with the families of the victims of the Ukrainian plane crash in Ghaem Square, in the northern city of Amol.

Another civil activist Shora Fekri has also been sentenced to six months in prison by Amol Court on April 21, 2020. She was accused of attending a memorial service for the victims of the IRGC attack on the Ukrainian passenger plane.

After three days of denials, Iranian authorities admitted on January 11, that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) had shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane.

The admission sparked a new wave of protests in Iran and appeared to expose a rift within the country’s leadership.

While Tehran has rejected allegations that it tried to cover up the shooting down of the plane, the state-run Tasnim news agency — which is tied to the IRGC — criticized Iran’s leaders for attempting to lie to the public.

Hundreds of people were arrested and several wounded during the protests, as state security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Tehran and other cities.

Source » iran-hrm