A Report of Detained Activists in Mashhad

14 civil rights activists were arrested on August 11, 2019 in front of a courthouse in Mashhad. They were protesting the 13-years imprisonment sentence for a university professor, Kamal Jafari Yazdi, by his appeals court when they were arrested. Three of them were released on bail and the other 11 people are still in prison.

According to the written judgment published on October 2, 2019, the name of the 14 detained activists are as following:

Abdolrasoul Mortazavi, Mohammad Hossein Sepehri, Hashem Rajai, Gholam-Hossein Boroujerdi, Mohammad Nourizad, Reza Jangi, Javad Laal Mohammadi, Morteza Ghasemi, Pooran Nazemi Moezabadi, Houriyeh Farajzadeh Tarani, Zahra Soleymanian, Seyed Hashem Khastar, Gholam-Ali Hosseinpour, and Fatemeh Sepehri.

Houriyeh Farajzadeh was released on bail on September 27, 2019 while Gholam-Hossein Boroujerdi and Pooran Nazemi were temporary released on bail earlier.

Kamal Jafari Yazdi is a university professor residing in Mashhad who was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Branch 4 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court in mid-April 2019. He was initially sentenced to ten years in prison for “forming an illegal group against national security,” two years for “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and one year for “propaganda against the regime”. The Appeals Court has upheld a preliminary court verdict against him on August 19, 2019. He was arrested to serve his sentence on August 30, 2019. On the verdict of the appeals court, it was mentioned that his sentenced was not reduced because of his interviews and the demonstration of his friends in front of the court.

On August 11, several civil rights activists showed up at his appeals court in Mashhad to express solidarity with him and they were arrested. Men were transferred to the ward 1-6 and women were transferred to the women ward of Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad. They were transferred to the Intelligence Department Detention Center after three days. Fars News Agency also confirmed their arrest. Their case was transferred from Sorkhrud’s Branch 3 of Public Court to the Branch 903 of the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad. They were charged with “disturbance in public order” through demonstration, and “propaganda in favor of opposition groups”.

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