May 20, 2010
HRANA – The appellate court has confirmed the four year prison sentence given to Mehdi Eghbal, a member of the Participation Front and reciter of Komeyl prayers at reformist religious ceremonies.

Two years of the four-year sentence given to Mr. Eghbal by the Revolutionary Court are for the crime of “insulting the supreme leadership.”
According to Kalameh, in the aftermath of the presidential elections, Mehdi Eghbal would recite Komeyl prayers every Friday at Dar Al-Zahra Hosseyniyeh for the families of political prisoners. Mr. Eghbal was arrested in November, 2009.
Since the time of his arrest, Mr. Eghbal has been held in Evin prison’s notorious Ward 209, which is the solitary confinement ward controlled by the Revolutionary Guard. Prison officials even refused to grant Mr. Eghbal leave for the Iranian new year.