Iran: Supreme Court Refuses to Grant Saba Kord Afshari a Retrial
Published by Ali on November 8, 2020
International Liberty Association: The Branch 28 of Iran’s Supreme Court has rejected a request for a retrial by Civil Activist prisoner Saab Kord Afshari’s lawyers. Kord Afshari received a 15-year prison sentence, which was first reduced in the Court of Appeals but then again surprisingly added to her prison term in May 2020.
Saba Kord Afshari was arrested on 1 June 2019 and was handed a 24-year prison sentence on 27 August 2019 by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court after being found guilty of removing her headscarf as well as ‘spreading propaganda against the state’ and ‘assembly and collusion’.
Authorities sentenced Kord Afshari to 15 years on charges of “promoting corruption and prostitution through appearing without a headscarf in public;” 1.5 years on charges of “propaganda against the state;” and 7.5 years on charges of “gathering and colluding against national security.”
In November 2019, the appeals court reduced the sentence by 15 years. Kord Afshari’s lawyer Hosein Taj tweeted on 30 May 2020, that the activist’s acquittal had been overturned and that her 15-year prison sentence, which had been rejected by the Branch 36 of the Appeals Court, would be enforced.
However, Saba Kord Afshari would be required to serve 15 years of her prison sentence, as per Iran’s sentencing guidelines. Kord-Afshari’s mother, Raheleh Ahmadi, is also in prison for campaigning against the compulsory hijab. She has been in Evin Prison serving a 31-month sentence since February 2020, for the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security,” after being arrested for removing her hijab in public.
ILA has previously reported that the young women’s rights activist was sent to Taleghani Hospital in Tehran but since she did not have money on her to pay for the expenses, she was returned to prison without any treatment On 19 September.
