The Criminal and Revolutionary Courts of Arak have sentenced lawyer Mohammad Najafi to a total of three years in prison and a fine for two parts of a legal case.
According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, Mohammad Najafi, an attorney at law, was sentenced to three years and paying a fine for a legal case opened against him while he was in prison.
Najafi stated that he was sentenced to two years in prison and a 15-million-toman fine by Branch 106 of the Arak Criminal Court for “spreading falsehood” and to one year in prison by Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court for “propaganda against the regime”.
Najafi clarified that he did not attend the court and did not object to the verdict nor submit a plea of no contest for any part of the legal case. He stated that the reason for this legal case was due to his submission of a voice recording in prison showing support for the nationwide protests, which led to charges against his sister and brother as well.
Najafi has faced several other legal cases on prior occasions. In his last legal case, for the first part, he received three years in prison for insulting the Supreme Leader of Iran and four months for spreading falsehood. In December 2018, for the second part of this legal case, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for “propaganda against the regime,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and “collaborating with hostile foreign countries by giving interviews with the Voice of America and Persian BBC.”
For the first part, he was pardoned and released from jail under a “pardon and commute” directive approved by Iran’s Supreme Leader. However, four days later, he was re-arrested and jailed in Arak Prison for the second part of this case.
In another legal case, Najafi received two years in prison and a fine for spreading falsehood to disturb public opinion after writing an open letter addressing Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran. This verdict was upheld on appeal. He was given this sentence while he had already been sentenced to one year in prison for the same charges in December 2018.
Furthermore, in February 2020, Najafi received six months in prison for attending and giving a speech at a ceremony in commemoration of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who was tortured and killed in custody.
Ultimately, from all the above charges, Najafi received 10 years in prison for the charge of “collaboration with hostile foreign countries by giving interviews with the Voice of America and Persian BBC,” which was the charge with the severest punishment. This sentence was later reduced to four years and six months.