3 Administrators of Telegram Channels Sentenced to 12 Years

HRANA News Agency – Mohammad Mohajer, Alireza Tavakoli and Mohammad Mahdi Zamanzadeh, administrators of multiple channels in Telegram, have been in Evin Prison for more than 19 months.
These three were arrested in September, and each of them has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Mohammad Mohajer, Alireza Tavakoli and Mohammad Mahdi Zamanzadeh are three administrators of some Telegram channels in Iran who have been held in Evin prison for more than 19 months.
Alireza Tavakoli Born on June 4, 1993, in Tehran, Mohammad Mohajer Born on May 13, 1993, in Tehran, Mohammad Mahdi Zamanzadeh, born on July 22, 1993 in Tehran, have started their activity on social networks since 2010.
In a letter, a copy of which has been given to HRANA, these individuals said that during a few months of interrogations in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, the Ministry of Intelligence officials intended to make the case more serious by assigning them to one of the opposition organizations.
According to these prisoners, interrogators have used threats such as arresting family members and depriving them of work and social activities, to make them confess.
These activists are being held at Ward 8 of Evin Prison since October 2016.
Mohammad Mohajer, Alireza Tavakoli and Mohammad Mahdi Zamanzadeh who were sentenced by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, headed by judge Salavati, to 36 years of imprisonment in total, after apeealing on June 1, 2017, attended the hearing at Tehran Court of Appeals, headed by Judge Zargar.
At the hearing, when the defendants and their lawyers were present, Judge Zargar was not present as the judge of the court, and Judge Babaei was the judge instead of him.
At the trial which lasted for about 5 minutes, Judge Babaei told three defendants and their attorneys that they would each write their defense and statement and send it to the court.
An informed source told HRANA’s reporter: “Judge Babaei not only did not allow the lawyers of the defendants to speak, but said to the three men during the trial: ‘you are apostate and anti-revolutionary and I am wondering why you have not been executed so far!’”
It should be recalled that Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced each of these activists to 5 years for “gathering and collusion against the regime”, 5 years for “insulting the sanctity”, and 2 years for “insulting the Leader and Founder of the Revolution” and in one case, “drinking alcohol”, 12 years in total, on April 25, 2017.
Mohammad Mohajer, born in 1993, was arrested on September 10, 2016, and after about one month of interrogation, he was transferred to Ward 8 of Evin Prison, on October 16, 2016.
Alireza Tavakoli, born in 1993, was arrested on August 2, 2016, and after being interrogated for six months, was transferred to Ward 8 of Evin Prison, on January 26, 2017.
Mohammad Mahdi Zamanzadeh, born in 1993, was arrested on September 3, 2016, and later on September 24, he was transferred to Ward 8 of Evin Prison.
These three activists were charged at Branch 1 of Evin Prosecutor’s Office, by investigator “Ali Ghanaatkar”, and after being present at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, the last hearing of their cases was held on April 10, 2017.
An informed source told HRANA’s reporter: “In addition to these three convicted individuals, there were three other defendants who had never been arrested and were interrogated only several times after being summoned to the prosecution office, but there is no case against them.”

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