HRANA News Agency – Despite UN’s objections to lashings in Iran, on May 31, 2016, 26 fans of Tractorsazi FC of Tabriz and protesters to Fitileh program were sentenced to flogging, fines and imprisonment on charge of “disturbing the public peace through participation in clamoring” by Branch 112 of the Criminal Court.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), the verdict of flogging, imprisonment and fines for 26 fans of Tractorsazi FC of Tabriz on charge of “disturbing the public peace through participation in clamoring”, was issued.
The defendants are: 1.Amin Seraj Rezaee 2.Mohammad Bagher Harirchi 3.Ahad Ebrhimpour 4.Majid Jaefarzadeh 5.Mir Mohammad Babaee 6.Farzad Nasiri 7.Siamak Makhmouri 8. Javad Soltani 9.Yavar Soltani 10.Hasan Ebrahimpour 11.Arouj Dehghani 12.Maysam Khalafi Zangi 13.Mohsen Hosseinzadeh 14.Jahanbakhsh Soltanzadeh 15.Mehdi Shirzad 16.Hadi Hosseinzadeh 17.Farzad Haydari 18.Ali Rshidi 19.Majid Naghizadeh 20.Rasoul Mohammadi Malalar 21.Amir Karimi 22.Shahin Shirinazhad 23.Hassan Jamali 24. Millad Pour Mohammad 25. ESmael Dehghani 26. Karim Hosseinzadeh
Their hearing had been held at Branch 112 of Criminal Court headed by Judge Ali Piri On May 22, 2016. And the verdict of flogging, imprisonment and fines was notified on May 31, 2016.
The verdict was texted as follows: “According to the contents of the case and report and of the police and the arrest of the defendants, the indictment issued by the Public and Revolutionary Court in Tabriz and unjustified defense of the accused first row to the fourteenth and absence of the fifteenth to the twenty-sixth row of the accused ones at the trial, and other circumstantial and hearsay evidence in the case the crime is obvious and according to Article 618 of the Penal Code, adopted on 2.3.1375 and 125, 160 and 211 of the Penal Code, adopted on 1.2.1392, the court sentences the first row to the fourteenth defendant to comply with Articles 37 and 38 of the Penal Code Act of 1392 in terms of youth, remorse and lack of criminal record to pay five million IRR fines instead of imprisonment and  three million IRR fines instead of whip and also sentence  the fifteenth to the twenty-sixth defendants also to one year and seventy-four lashes. The verdict of the fifteenth to the twenty-sixth row defendants was in absentia and an appeal can be made within twenty days after the notification in this court and the verdict of first row to the fourteenth defendants was in their presence and may be appealed within twenty days after the notification in the Court of Appeal of East Azerbaijan province. ”
These people were arrested on November 20, 2015, during the football match between Tractor and Siyah Jamegan teams following the protest on the Fitileh program and had been transferred to Tabriz Central Prison after one day of detention. They were then released on the bail.