Iran sentenced three civil rights activists to 10 years of prison each for not wearing the regime’s compulsory veil in public.
Yasaman Ariaie, her mother Monireh Arabshahi and Mojgan Keshavarz, currently detained in Qarchak Prison near Tehran, were sentenced to overall 55 years and six months of prison.
The sentence was announced to them yesterday without the presence of their lawyers.
According to article 134 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, if the sentences are finalized, 10 years of the prison terms for “encouraging and providing the means for moral corruption” will be implemented for each of the civil rights activists.
The 28th Branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court headed by Judge Moghiseh, sentenced Yasaman Ariaie, Monireh Arabshahi and Mojgan Keshavarz to five years of prison for “assembly and collusion with the intent of acting against national security”, one year of prison for “spreading propaganda against the state” and 10 years of prison for “encouraging and providing the means for moral corruption”. Mojgan Keshavarz was sentenced to another seven years and six months of prison for “blasphemy”.
Amir Raiesian, Ariaie and Arabshahi’s lawyer, told Human Rights Activists in Iran that lawyers were banned from the court proceedings and all legal procedures.
According to a source who attended the court proceedings, Judge Moghiseh’s treatment of the women was “unsuitable and insulting”.
Moghiseh, notorious for handing down hefty prison terms to political prisoners, read the verdict while verbally abusing the women, the source added.
He had threatened the civil rights activists with hefty prison terms to be served in the notorious Qarchak Prison and said that their lawyers were not allowed to follow up the legal procedures until after the initial verdict was announced.
Yasaman Ariaie was detained on April 10 for not observing the regime’s compulsory veil and is currently detained in Section 5 of Qarchak Prison along with her mother, Monireh Arabshahi, who was arrested a day after her daughter.
Section 5 holds mostly foreign nationals.
Security forces detained Mojgan Keshavarz in her home on April 25 for not wearing the compulsory veil in public. She was transferred to Qarchak six days later.
Political prisoners are regularly beaten in Qarchak Prison by non-political prisoners usually on orders of prison officials.
Most recently, Yasaman was attacked by an inmate in the prison who repeatedly struck her in the shoulder blade.
Despite its claims of being a regional power, the Iranian regime cannot tolerate even the smallest act of civil disobedience and deems activities against the compulsory veil, a security threat.
Source » irannewswire