Iran Briefing – Mehdi Khoukhian and Abbas Valizadeh, two civil activists in Azerbaijan were sentenced to one and eight year in prison, respectively. They were arrested in Malekan on Saturday, December 31, 2011 and trialed on Monday, March 12, 2012 at first branch of Maragheh Revolutionary Court. At first they were transferred to the intelligence and afterwards to the prison of Maragheh.
They were charged of “Propaganda against Islamic Republic” and their cases were sent to the public prosecutors and revolutionary court of Maragheh after indictment. The eight year in prison sentence of Abbas Valizadeh was explained by the court as one year for civil activities which is defined in Iranian regime as propaganda against system, five years for criticizing religious superstition and acting against it which was defined by the court as Blasphemy, two years for criticizing Ali Khamenei, religious leader of Iranian regime which was defined by the court as Insulting the Leader and unfairly these two civil activists were sentenced to nine year in prison, totally.
Koukhian and Valizade’s charges in summary were explained by the court as “Propaganda against system, Blasphemy, Insulting the Leader, in the cyber space, especially on Facebook.”
Naghi Mahmoudi, a lawyer, says evidences which Chief Judge of the Revolutionary Court of Maragheh, Judge Davrnya, relying on them, has issued such a harsh sentence, have no legal status. For example, insulting Imam Jom’e (a post that Islamic Republic gives to the pro-regime Mullahs in every city to hold religious ceremony of Friday Prayer, but these Mullahs have political power more than any authority in the city) of Malekan city, was for criticizing Imam Jom’e for he opposed to name two streets “Ata” and “Ana” (Turkish names means father and mother) and writhing a critic issue about the refugees of Azerbaijan’s earthquake and their situations, sharing a cartoon of Ahmadinejad and Khamenei on Facebook, publishing a photo of an Azerbaijani detainee and asking for his freedom, Blasphemy was for criticizing and insulting eulogy on the Muharram mourning and rituals and so on. They were convicted of such charges.
Their lawyer was Mrs. Fatemeh Sattari.