Crime & Justice

Iran sentences lawyer of Mahsa Amini’s family to one year in prison

Tehran, Oct 17 (EFE) – An Iranian revolutionary court on Tuesday sentenced the lawyer of Mahsa Amini’s family to one year in prison and two years without using social media for spreading “propaganda against the system.”

“My client Saleh Nikbakht has unfortunately been sentenced to one year in prison for propaganda against the system,” said his lawyer Ali Rezai, according to Iranian media.

Nikbakht, 73, is the lawyer for the family of Amini, whose death on September 16, 2022, after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic veil correctly, sparked widespread protests across the country.

The lawyer unsuccessfully sued the police officers who arrested her for not wearing the veil correctly, and demanded a new forensic investigation after the state investigation ruled that Amini died of a previous illness, not from police beatings.

Nikbakht is not the only lawyer to have had issues with the Iranian judiciary in recent months, as at least 19 human rights lawyers have been detained during the protests.

Amini’s death sparked powerful protests that lasted for months, calling for the end of the Islamic Republic, and only subsided after a repression that left 500 people dead, at least 22,000 arrested, and seven protesters executed, one of them in public.

The first anniversary of Amini’s death was commemorated on September 16 amid heavy repression and a huge deployment of security forces, and only timid protests took place.

In Saqez, Amini’s hometown in Iranian Kurdistan, Revolutionary Guard forces were deployed days before the anniversary to prevent protests.

Authorities also prevented Amini’s family from holding a ceremony at the Aichi cemetery, where she is buried and where the first veils flew and the first chants of “woman, life and freedom” were heard during her funeral.

Amini’s father was detained for a few hours to warn him not to commemorate the first anniversary of his daughter’s death, according to the Oslo-based NGO Iranian Human Rights.EFE

jlr/mcd/ics

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