Iran: 2 Prisoners Sentence Extended by One Year
Published by Ali on February 8, 2021International Liberty Association: Two Iranian prisoners were sentenced to prison by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran in connection with a new case against them while they were in prison.
According to the verdict issued by Branch 29 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Mohammad Bannazadeh Amirkhizi and Majid Asadi have been each sentenced to one year in prison on the charge of “spreading propaganda against the state.”
This is a common practice by judicial authorities in Iran to extend the sentence of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, without any semblance of due process, in order to keep them behind bars despite completing their sentences or being eligible for release.
Payam Shakiba, another prisoner involved in the case, was acquitted of the charges and released from Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj on Wednesday, 3 February.
They were tried by the Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran on 19 October 2020.
During the court hearing, which was presided over by Judge Seyed Ali Mazloum, their cases were examined on the charges of “spreading propaganda against the state”, without their presence.
Earlier on 26 September, the court hearing on the charges against the prisoners was cancelled due to their refusal to be transferred in handcuffs and wearing prison clothes at the court.
Majid Asadi, who is in his late 30s, had already been acquitted of the charge attributed to him in the same branch on 8 July 2020. But under pressure from the Ministry of Intelligence the case was opened again on 15 July 2020.
Majid Asadi, Mohammad Benazadeh Amirkhizi and Payam Shakiba were transferred from Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj to the Ward 209 of Evin Prison, run by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, on 22 July for interrogation. They were subsequently transferred to the general ward of Evin Prison in September 2020 at the end of their interrogation.
Payam Shakiba and Mohammad Benazadeh Amirkhizi were returned to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj in December 2020.
ILA: Majid Asadi has been in detention since February 2017, when he was arrested at his home in Karaj, near the Iranian capital, Tehran. Asadi, a former student activist who had been working as a translator for a private company, was sentenced in November 2017 to six years in prison on charges of “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security” and spreading propaganda against the state.