Six-Month Sentence for Karim Esmaeilzadeh Upheld on Appeal

The Appellate Court in East Azerbaijan Province has confirmed the six-month sentence for Azerbaijani-Turk activist Karim Esmaeilzadeh (Esmaeil-Zadeh).

The original verdict, issued by the Tabriz Revolutionary Court, found Esmaeilzadeh guilty of “inciting people to violence on the Internet.”

On August 16, 2023, security forces arrested Esmaeilzadeh as he entered a football stadium in Tabriz. He was later released on bail amounting to 900 million dollars (approximately 18,000 dollars) from the city’s prison.

However, Esmaeilzadeh faced another arrest by security forces on August 27. This time, he secured his release on bail of 600 million tomans from Tabriz Prison. The upheld sentence reflects the ongoing legal challenges faced by the activist.

In 2023, the Department of Statistics and Publications of the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) recorded 329 reports, citing the arrest of 324 citizens linked to ethnic and national rights. Notably, 156 of these arrests occurred without the issuance of a judicial warrant.