Court of Appeal Upholds the Verdict Against Human Rights Attorney, Mohammad Najafi
Published by Ali on April 23, 2019An appeals court upheld a 13-year prison sentence of human rights attorney Mohammad Najafi who was jailed in 2018 after voicing support for people detained during anti-government protests, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Sunday, 14 Aril, 2019.
Mohammad Najafi was sentenced in December to 10 years for “conveying information to a hostile country” through interviews with foreign media, two years for insulting the supreme leader and one year for publicly supporting opposition groups.
Mohammad Najafi had been imprisoned since 28 October, 2018, for informing media outlets about the suspicious case of Vahid Heydari, 22, who died in detention at the 12th Police Station in Arak sometime between the end of December 2017 and the beginning of January 2018.
Najafi told medias at the time that the authorities were trying to cover up the real reason for Heydari’s death by claiming he had committed suicide.
Najafi is not the only lawyer who is currently behind bars in Iran for performing his legal work.
In another case on 16 April, 2019, Branch 2 of the Prosecutor’s Office in Tehran’s Evin prison issued an indictment against Amir Salar Davoudi, human rights lawyers, on charges of “cooperating with hostile governments through giving interviews to VOA and “establishing a group to overthrow the regime.”
It is believed that the second charge against Amir Salar Davoudi is linked to his peaceful activities including creation of a public channel called “Without Retouch” on Telegram social media, on which he reported news and events regarding lawyers and the Bar Association.