HRANA News Agency – Arash Ghaleh-Golab, Kourosh Karam-Pour, Farzaneh Yahya-Abadi, Mandana Sadeghi and his husband, Reza Mohammadi, have been sentenced to a total of more than 10 years and 9 months in prison by Branch One of the Abadan Revolutionary Court.
According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists in Iran, five poets and journalists have been sentenced to prison terms.
Based on the verdict issued by Branch One of the Abadan Revolutionary Court, Mandana Sadeghi and Arash Ghaleh-Golab have each been sentenced to 4 years, 1 month, and 17 days in prison. Kourosh Karam-Pour has been sentenced to 2 years in prison. Reza Mohammadi and Farzaneh Yahya-Abadi have each been sentenced to 3 months and 1 day in prison.
Breakdown of Charges and Sentences
Mandana Sadeghi and Arash Ghaleh-Golab were convicted of “propaganda against the regime” and sentenced to 7 months and 16 days in prison. They were also convicted of “assembly and collusion against national security” and sentenced to 3 years, 6 months, and 1 day in prison. Kourosh Karam-Pour, a poet and journalist from Abadan, was sentenced to 2 years in prison on similar charges. Reza Mohammadi, poet and literary critic, and Farzaneh Yahya-Abadi, journalist, were each sentenced to 3 months and 1 day in prison for “propaganda against the regime”. The sentence against Yahya-Abadi was issued in absentia.
Court Proceedings and Previous Arrests
These three journalists, along with Reza Mohammadi, Ms. Sadeghi’s husband, had previously been summoned to the Abadan Revolutionary Court for their defense.
Mandana Sadeghi and Reza Mohammadi were arrested at their home in Abadan on October 19, 2022, by security forces and transferred to Ahvaz. They were later released on bail. They had previously faced legal action for their activities. Farzaneh Yahya-Abadi was also arrested on October 19, 2022, in Abadan and later released on bail. Arash Ghaleh-Golab was arrested on May 26, 2022, in front of the Metropol Building while mourning the victims of the Metropol collapse. Security forces detained him violently, and he was later released after 11 days on bail.
Over the past six months, dozens of journalists have been arrested or summoned for covering news and publishing articles about the 2022 nationwide protests and poison attacks on school students. These arrests exemplify the regime’s attempt to suppress the free flow of information and limit social and civil liberties. This report provides a list of 19 jailed journalists.
According to data collected by HRANA, among many of the journalists who were detained or summoned in recent months, at least 19 are still jailed/imprisoned in different prisons:
Niloofar Hamedi
1- Niloofar Hamedi
Arrest date: September 22, 2022
Place of Arrest: Tehran
Status of due process: defendant with an unclear status of due process.
Latest Condition: Jailed in Qarchak Prison, Varamin city.
Elaheh Mohammadi
2- Elaheh Mohammadi
Arrest date: September 29, 2022
Place of Arrest: Tehran
Status of due process: defendant with an unclear status of due process.
Latest Condition: Jailed in Qarchak Prison, Varamin city.
Alireza Jabbari Darestani
3- Alireza Jabbari Darestani
Arrest date: September 25, 2022
Place of Arrest: Tehran
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Vida Rabbani
4- Vida Rabbani
Arrest date: September 24, 2022
Place of Arrest: Tehran
Status of due process: sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for “assembly and collusion against national security”
Latest Condition: Jailed in Evin Prison, Tehran
Maliheh Doreki
5- Maliheh Doreki
Arrest date: October 26, 2022
Place of Arrest: Abadan
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Farzaneh Yahya-Abadi
6- Farzaneh Yahya-Abadi
Arrest date: October 19, 2022
Place of Arrest: Abadan
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Farkhandeh Ashoori
7- Farkhandeh Ashoori
Arrest date: October 17, 2022
Place of Arrest: Shiraz
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Siamand Mohtadi
8- Siamand Mohtadi
Arrest date: February 11, 2023
Place of Arrest: Bukan
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Ziba Omidifar
9- Ziba Omidifar
Arrest date: December 8, 2022
Place of Arrest: Qorveh
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Maral Darafarin
10- Maral Darafarin
Arrest date: November 1, 2022
Place of Arrest: unknown (a resident of Lahijan)
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Melika Hashemi
11- Melika Hashemi
Arrest date: January 20, 2023
Place of Arrest: Tehran (Evin Courthouse)
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Amir Maskani
12- Amir Maskani
Arrest date: November 22, 2022
Place of Arrest: Sabzevar
Status of due process: sentenced to seven months in prison, nine months of suspended imprisonment and paying a five-million-Toman fine for “propaganda against the regime, inciting people to commit murder and wage war against national security”
Latest Condition: Unknown
Seyed-Ali Pour-Tabatabaei
13- Seyed-Ali Pour-Tabatabaei
Arrest date: March 5, 2023
Place of Arrest: Qom
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Morteza Hagh-Bayan
14- Morteza Hagh-Bayan
Arrest date: August 25, 2019
Place of Arrest: Sanandaj
Status of due process: sentenced to two years and six months in prison for “spreading falsehood on the Internet, disturbing public opinions, insulting and slandering government’ authorities.”
Latest Condition: Since May 19, 2021, he has been serving his sentence in Sanadaj Prison.
Mohsen Ravari
15- Mohsen Ravari
Arrest date: September 23, 2022
Place of Arrest: Jiroft
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Pouria Mahdavi Moghadam
16- Pouria Mahdavi Moghadam
Arrest date: October 22, 2022
Place of Arrest: Borujerd
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
17- Iman Behpasand
Arrest date: September 22, 2022
Place of Arrest: Tehran
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
18- Mohsen Ahmadizadeh
Arrest date: September 23, 2022
Place of Arrest: Jiroft
Status of due process: defendant awaiting trial
Latest Condition: Unknown
Mohammad Zare Foumani
19- Mohammad Zare Foumani
Arrest date: October 9, 2022
Place of Arrest: unknown
Status of due process: Sentenced by the Court of Appeals to 12 years, paying a 15-million-Tomans fine and two years exile for “spreading falsehood against the regime’s authorities to disturb public opinions, assembly and collusion, and inciting people to act against national security.”
Latest Condition: Jailed in Evin Prison’s special ward for clergies, Tehran.
HRANA – Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old young woman, was arrested by the morality police for the crime of improper hijab. Her arrest and death in detention fueled nationwide protests in Iran. Protesters came to the streets with the central slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” in protest against the performance, laws, and structure of the regime. The following 486-page report is dedicated to the statistical review, analysis, and summary of the first eighty-two days of the ongoing protests (September 17 to December 7, 2022). In this report, in addition to the geographic analysis and the presentation of maps and charts, the identity of 481 deceased, including 68 children and teenagers, an estimated of 18,242 arrested along with the identity of 3,670 arrested citizens, 605 students and 61 journalists or activists in the field of information is compiled. In addition, the report includes a complete collection of 1988 verified video reports by date and topic. The report examines protests across 1115 documented gatherings in all 31 provinces of the country, including 160 cities and 143 universities.
Summary
Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a young 22-year-old woman from Saqqez, Kurdistan was visiting Tehran, when she was taken into custody on Tuesday, September 13, 2022, by the Morality Police officers at the Haqqani metro station in Tehran. The reason for her arrest: not properly observing the strict Islamic dress code. Mahsa/Zhina was taken to the infamous detention center of Moral Security Police known as Vozara.
Shortly after Mahsa’s arrest, she went into a coma with level three concussion, and her partially alive body was transferred to the intensive care unit of Kasra Hospital. Given the track record of the police and Guidance Patrols in mistreating the arrestees and similar previous incidents, with the believe that Mahsa was beaten during the arrest people were outraged.
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Unpersuasive explanations given by the Central Command of the Islamic Republic Police Force (FARAJA) in defense of its actions regarding the death of Mahsa, the past performance of the police force, along with widespread dissatisfaction with the existence of a body called the Moral Security Police, fueled widespread protests in Iran.
The widespread protests sparked at the time Mahsa Amini was announced dead in front of Kasra Hospital on Argentina Street in Tehran, and then quickly spread to the streets despite the intimidating presence of Iran’s security forces. The protests intensified after Mahsa’s burial in a Saqqez cemetery. To the extent that after eighty-two days of nationwide protests between September 17, 2022, to December 7, 2022, they have spread to Iran’s all 31 provinces, 160 cities, and 143 major universities.
The protests did not stay limited to Mahsa’s death, it rather, quickly targeted the Iranian government’s political and ideological foundations. These protests were violently quashed by the anti-riot police and Iran’s militia force (Basij). teargas, pellets, and live ammunition were used in the repression of protestors. This widespread crackdown has led to the death of dozens of people and the wounding of hundreds of protestors.
Despite sever communication restrictions imposed by the Islamic Republic, this report attempts to give a clearer picture of the first 82 days of the protests between September 17, to December 7, 2022. It’s worth mentioning at the time of this report the protests are still ongoing in various forms.
