Iranian human rights activist Nargess Mohammadi has been summoned to serve out a six-year prison term.
Mohammadi was the deputy head of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, an NGO providing pro-bono legal services in human rights cases. The centre is currently outlawed by the Islamic Republic.
Mohammadi has been charged with “assembly and collusion against national security, membership in the Human Rights Defenders Centre and propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic regime.” In the preliminary court, she was sentenced to 11 years in jail, but her sentenced was reduced to six years in the appellate court.
Mohammadi, a member of the National Peace Council, has also been banned from traveling abroad. Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, who had also been targeted with arrests and persecution by the Islamic Republic in recent years, has fled the country, but Mohammadi has reportedly decided to stay in Iran together with her twins.
SOURCE : Radio Zamaneh
Activist gets six years in jail
Tue, 03/06/2012
The appellate court has confirmed the six-year jail sentence handed to Nargess Mohammadi, the deputy head of Iran’s Human Rights Defenders Centre.
The Human Rights Defenders Centre website reports that Mohammadi was sentenced to five years in prison for “assembly and collusion against national security.” She reportedly had been sentenced to another five years in jail for membership in the Human Rights Defenders Centre, an NGO of lawyers working pro bono on human rights cases, as well as an additional year in prison for “propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic.
The total sentence of 11 years in jail was reduced to six years by the appellate court, according to Mohammadi’s lawyer.
Mohammadi was fired from her position at an engineering company and summoned to the judiciary soon after, only to be released on bail.
Moihammadi was severely ill during her arrest and was hospitalized after her release. Her home was also raided in February of 2011, and her attempts to file charges against the perpetrators have been fruitless.
Members of the Human Rights Defenders Centre have been the target of continuous persecution by Islamic Republic authorities. On Sunday, Abdolfattah Soltani, another human rights lawyer linked to the centre, was sentenced to 18 years in jail and a 20-year ban from legal practice.
Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Peace laureate and one of the founding members of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, has announced that the detained centre members are being pressured to make false statements about the centre and about Ebadi herself, in order to implicate her and their organization in seditious activities.
Source: GoPetition