{"id":1467,"date":"2019-06-05T14:14:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T14:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1467"},"modified":"2020-04-01T14:16:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T14:16:07","slug":"iran-three-rights-lawyers-sentenced-to-lengthy-jail-terms-in-less-than-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1467","title":{"rendered":"Iran: Three Rights Lawyers Sentenced to Lengthy Jail Terms in Less Than a Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Defense Attorney Imprisoned for Social Media Posts<\/p><\/div>\n

June 5, 2019 \u2013\u00a0Amirsalar Davoudi\u00a0has become the third known defense attorney to be sent to prison in Iran for his peaceful activities in less than a year, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.<\/p>\n

On June 1, 2019, his wife Tannaz Kolahchian\u00a0tweeted\u00a0that Davoudi had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the content of his social media posts, 15 years of which he must serve according to Article 134 of the country\u2019s\u00a0Islamic Penal Code\u00a0(subject to appeal).<\/p>\n

\u201cDavoudi\u2019s sentence is another example of the judiciary and security establishment\u2019s egregious assault on the legal profession and due process rights in Iran,\u201d said CHRI\u2019s Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawyers are a lifeline for people targeted by the state for political reasons,\u201d he added. \u201cPreventing them from doing their jobs leaves activists, journalists, dissidents and other critics of the state defenseless in a repressive system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davoudi was convicted of four charges: \u201ccollaborating with an enemy state through interviews,\u201d \u201cpropaganda against the state,\u201d \u201cinsulting officials,\u201d and \u201cforming a group to overthrow the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

His 15-year sentence is based on the fourth charge.<\/p>\n

The \u201cgroup\u201d is a reference to the \u201cWithout Retouch\u201d\u00a0Telegram\u00a0messaging app\u00a0channel, on which Davoudi posted his views about political and social affairs as well as items related to civil rights issues in the country.<\/p>\n

On June 2, Davoudi\u2019s lawyer Vahid Meshgani Farahani\u00a0stated\u00a0in an interview that Davoudi was also sentenced to pay a fine of 60 million rials and abstain from social media activities for two years.<\/p>\n

The exact date of Davoudi\u2019s sentencing, issued at branch 15 of the revolutionary court in Tehran, has not been announced.<\/p>\n

On June 4, his wife\u00a0tweeted\u00a0that her husband had finally been moved to a public ward in Evin Prison after spending \u201c190 days\u201d in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n

Agents of the judiciary\u2019s security and intelligence center had\u00a0arrested\u00a0Davoudi on November 20, 2018.<\/p>\n

Kolahchian also stated that her husband has \u201cdecided not to object to the verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did not elaborate as to why. Prominent imprisoned defense attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose\u00a0imprisonmentmade international headlines, stated in March 2019 that she would not appeal her own lengthy prison sentence\u00a0in protest\u00a0against Iran\u2019s justice system.<\/p>\n

\u201cSotoudeh\u2019s imprisonment briefly shined a light on the judiciary and security establishment\u2019s ongoing assault on due process rights and a fair trial in Iran,\u201d said Ghaemi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe international community should not take that light away while defense attorneys continue to be jailed in Iran under trumped-up charges,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Crackdown on Defense Attorneys and Due Process Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sentencing of three defense attorneys including Davoudi to long prison terms in less than a year represents a spike in the\u00a0trend\u00a0of lawyers being jailed for defending and advocating human rights Iran.<\/p>\n

In addition to Davoudi and Sotoudeh,\u00a0Mohammad Najafi\u00a0is currently serving a three-year prison sentence and facing a total of 19 years behind bars.<\/p>\n

They are among at least\u00a0eight lawyers\u00a0who have been arrested in the Islamic Republic since September 2018 after peacefully defending political prisoners or speaking out about politically sensitive cases and issues in the country.<\/p>\n

The arrests take place against the backdrop of an\u00a0ongoing crackdown\u00a0on due process rights.<\/p>\n

Since late 2017, detainees held on national security-related charges in Iran\u2014including journalists, activists, and\u00a0defense lawyers\u2014have been told to choose their counsel from a\u00a0list approved by Iran\u2019s chief justice.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0violation\u00a0of international standards of due process has been\u00a0condemned\u00a0by lawyers and rights groups based\u00a0inside\u00a0and\u00a0outside\u00a0the country.<\/p>\n

In May 2019, Parliament\u2019s Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee\u00a0approved\u00a0a proposal that would allow detainees accused of national security crimes to choose their own lawyer rather than one from a court-approved list.<\/p>\n

But the proposal, which would have to make it through two other stages before it could become law, would allow the authorities to hold these detainees while denying them access to counsel for at least 20 days during an initial \u201cinvestigation\u201d stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran is putting lawyers behind bars for doing their jobs and depriving those targeted by the state of counsel of choice in an attempt to further suppress dissent,\u201d said Ghaemi.<\/p>\n

\u201cParliament should address these violations of due process and the Iranian Bar Association should take the lead in defending its own members,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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June 5, 2019 \u2013\u00a0Amirsalar Davoudi\u00a0has become the third known defense attorney to be sent to prison in Iran for his peaceful activities in less than a year, the Center for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[482,402,167,483,484],"class_list":["post-1467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-amirsalar-davoudi","tag-mohammad-najafi","tag-nasrin-sotoudeh","tag-tannaz-kolahchian","tag-vahid-meshgani-farahani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1467"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1611,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions\/1611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}