HRANA – The five-year prison sentence of Mahmoud Talkh Abi, one of those arrested during the nationwide protests of 2026 and currently held in Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, has been upheld in full by Branch 16 of the Khuzestan Province Court of Appeals.

Based on a ruling issued by Branch 16 of the Khuzestan Province Court of Appeals, Mr. Talkh Abi was sentenced to five years in prison on the charge of “disrupting public order,” pursuant to the Note to Article 286 of the Islamic Penal Code.

Previously, at the trial stage, Branch 1 of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court had sentenced him to five years in prison, a two-year ban on leaving the country, and two years of mandatory attendance at the Office for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in connection with this charge. The supplementary punishments were overturned during the appeals process.

Mahmoud Talkh Abi was arrested on December 30, 2025, in connection with the nationwide protests and is currently being held in Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz.

In this case, the charge of “disrupting public order” was brought under the Note to Article 286 of the Islamic Penal Code. Under Iran’s legal framework, Article 286 itself pertains to the offense of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel-arz). However, according to its Note, if a defendant’s actions are deemed to have caused disorder or insecurity but are not considered sufficiently extensive to meet the threshold of “corruption on earth,” the death penalty is not applied, and the court may instead impose a Grade Five or Grade Six discretionary prison sentence (up to five years’ imprisonment). The court’s reliance on this Note rather than Article 618 of the Islamic Penal Code—which addresses ordinary public-order offenses and carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison—indicates that the case was handled through a security-oriented approach, with the harsher penalties provided under the Note to Article 286 serving as the basis for the sentence.