{"id":585,"date":"2015-04-29T13:14:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T13:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.bashariyat.org\/?p=585"},"modified":"2015-04-29T13:14:10","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T13:14:10","slug":"final-verdict-five-to-seven-years-for-facebook-users-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.bashariyat.org\/?p=585","title":{"rendered":"Final Verdict: Five to Seven Years for Facebook Users in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

An appeals court in Tehran has sentenced six individuals to prison terms ranging from five to seven years for postings on their Facebook pages. Two additional individuals are facing as of yet unknown terms for their activities on the social networking site.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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These are the final verdicts for a group of eight Facebook users arrested in 2014, and represent a reduction from sentences that originally ranged as high as 20 years for their posting of peaceful online content. The sentences indicate a continuation of an assault on freedom of speech in Iran that has increasingly focused on social media.<\/strong>
\nA source familiar with the case informed the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran of these sentences, and said that the court\u2019s ruling, which was served to six of the suspects\u2019 lawyers last week, indicated that they were given maximum sentence according to the New Islamic Penal Code.<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt is still not clear which charges the Appeals Court Judge has used for the five individuals\u2019 seven-year sentences. They were all charged with \u201cassembly and collusion against national security\u201d and \u201cinsulting the sacred,\u201d and the maximum penalty for each is seven years in prison,\u201d said the source.<\/strong>
\nMassoud Seyed Talebi, Farid Akramipour, Fariborz Kardar Fard, Massoud Ghasemkhani, and Amir Golestani were each sentenced to seven years, and Mehdi Reyshahri was sentenced to five years in prison. Regarding the two other individuals, both female, whose final ruling is unknown, Roya Saberi Nobakht is being held inside Gharchak Prison in Varamin, and the other, who has two young children, was released on bail upon completion of interrogations in 2014.<\/strong>
\nThe eight suspects were sentenced on charges such as \u201cinsulting the Supreme Leader,\u201d \u201cinsulting state officials,\u201d and \u201cpropaganda against the state.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u201cLawyers for these individuals insist on knowing which of the charges the Judge used for issuing the seven-year sentence, because although the two charges have the same length of imprisonment as maximum punishment, they have different legal ramifications,\u201d said the source.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the New Islamic Penal Code, if an individual is charged with \u2018insulting the sacred,\u2019 he or she can request conditional release after serving 1\/3 of the sentence; however, for the charge of \u2018assembly and collusion,\u2019 there is no conditional release. Therefore, if their sentence is related to the charge of \u2018insulting the sacred,\u2019 they can apply for conditional release after serving 2.5 years in prison,\u201d the source stated.<\/strong>
\nThe source also noted that the six individuals were being held in very poor conditions inside Evin Prison. \u201cLast week, for unknown reasons, prison officials transferred them from Ward 350 to Ward 8, a ward that does not have suitable sanitary and living conditions and it is a ward in which prisoners with different types of crimes are held. The six men sleep on the floor [because there are no beds available for them in this ward].\u201d<\/strong>
\nAccording to a report by IRNA on July 13, 2014, the eight young individuals active on Facebook were originally sentenced on charges of \u201cassembly and collusion against national security,\u201d \u201cpropaganda against the state,\u201d and \u201cinsulting the sacred, insulting Heads of Branches, and insulting individuals.\u201d The report indicated that the IRGC\u2019s Sarallah Base had pursued and identified the eight individuals and arrested them in July 2013. The case was reviewed at the Evin Prison Courts and forwarded to Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on February 16, 2014.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An appeals court in Tehran has sentenced six individuals to prison terms ranging from five to seven years for postings on their Facebook pages. Two additional individuals are facing as of yet unknown terms for their activities on the social networking site.<\/p>

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