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August 28, 2015\u2014The student and women’s rights activist Bahareh Hedayat, imprisoned for over five years in Iran, has been given an additional two-year prison sentence, days after receiving release orders from an Appeals Court in Tehran.<\/p>\nAugust 28, 2015\u2014The student and women’s rights activist Bahareh Hedayat, imprisoned for over five years in Iran, has been given an additional two-year prison sentence, days after receiving release orders from an Appeals Court in Tehran.<\/p>\n
The sentence, which dates from a 2007 suspended sentence, is in violation of Iran\u2019s own laws, since the statute of limitations on that charge expired in 2012. The Judiciary decided to enforce it now in an effort to keep the activist, who remains a powerful and charismatic voice of dissent in Iran and who had completed her current sentence, in prison.
\n\u201cThis desperate tactic to keep Bahareh Hedayat behind bars shows the extent to which the Iranian Judiciary remains terrified and intolerant of any peaceful dissent,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Right in Iran.
\nHedayat has been imprisoned since January 2010 on charges related to her peaceful activism. She was due for release in June 2015, based upon Article 134 in Iran\u2019s New Islamic Penal Code, which states that in the case of conviction on multiple charges the prison term should not exceed the sentence for the charge that carries the heaviest punishment.
\n\u201cWe pursued enforcement of Article 134 in Bahareh\u2019s case, despite many impediments. Bahareh should have been released in June 2015, but they did not allow her release. We filed a lawsuit, the media picked up the story, and Bahareh threatened to embark on a hunger strike. All of this led to their initiating another [older] case, said Amin Ahmadian, Hedayat\u2019s husband, in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
\nHe continued, “Branch 54 of the Appeals Court eventually ordered Bahareh\u2019s release on August 12. We waited for a few days for the notice to be served\u2026but we realized they were not releasing her. After Bahareh followed up from inside prison, she was told that her release orders had arrived, but that the Tehran Prosecutor has asked for enforcement of [her 2007] sentence.\u201d
\nAhmadian said Hedayat \u201ctold the prison officials her release papers had arrived and no other judicial action or orders had been issued for her imprisonment, and that her continued imprisonment was illegal.\u201d
\n\u201cHer release orders were issued on August 12, and orders for enforcement of her two-year prison sentence were issued on August 17. Bahareh was illegally kept in prison for the days in between,\u201d noted her husband.
\n\u201cAdditionally,\u201d said Ahmadian, \u201conce a prisoner\u2019s release orders are issued, the Judge is not allowed to enter the case to reduce or increase the sentence. This means her additional two-year sentence should have been decided six years ago, or at least it should have been pursued and forwarded to the Sentence Enforcement Unit during her prison term. As this was not done and she has completed her prison sentence, there was no legal basis for the Judge\u2019s entry in the case.\u201d
\nAhmadian told the Campaign that Hedayat had filed a lawsuit against this decision. \u201cWe will file a lawsuit, too, as keeping her without judicial orders\u2026is a clear violation of their own laws. Although experience has shown us that such complaints will not receive much attention.\u201d
\nHedayat\u2019s husband said he wanted the Judiciary to appoint an impartial judge to review his wife\u2019s case. \u201cThis case\u2019s process should be reviewed. They should check to see how this case [has been handled] from the beginning, and that it is still continuing on its illegal path. We will accept whatever decision an impartial court and judge makes\u2026.Keeping Bahareh [imprisoned despite] Article 134\u2026and enforcing her suspended sentence is illegal, and the individual who was responsible for this must be dismissed and sentenced to prison himself, according to Article 570 of the Islamic Penal Code.\u201d
\n\u201cWe would like to know who made this decision, and according to what judicial process?\u201d Ahmadian asked.
\nThe previously suspended charges that are now being enforced stem from Hedayat\u2019s participation in a peaceful 2006 demonstration. Branch Six of Tehran\u2019s Revolutionary Court charged her with \u201cacting against national security,\u201d \u201cdisturbing public order,\u201d and \u201cpropaganda against the state\u201d on April 18, 2007. Her lawyer, prominent human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh, was not allowed into the courtroom during her trial, and on May 27, 2007, the Court sentenced Hedayat to a two-year suspended prison sentence, in effect for five years, under Article 610 of the Islamic Penal Code for \u201cacting against national security.\u201d The Court dropped charges of \u201cdisturbing public order\u201d and \u201cpropaganda against state\u201d against Hedayat.\u00a0The statute of limitation on that charge, then, has expired.
\nHedayat is widely regarded as a symbol of Iranian student movement, and is the longest serving Green Movement prisoner still behind bars. The Green Movement arose out of the 2009 presidential election in Iran, in which the disputed results were followed by widespread peaceful protests and then a violent state crackdown on the protests.
\nHedayat, 34, was a member of the Central Council and Spokesperson for the Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat student union, and an activist with the One Million Signatures Campaign for the Change of Discriminatory Laws Against Women. She was arrested by Iran\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence for the fifth time in four years at midnight on December 31, 2009, as a result of her peaceful activism.
\nShe was given three sentences\u00a0in January 2010: Five years for \u201cacting against national security and publishing falsehoods,\u201d two years for \u201cinsulting the Supreme Leader,\u201d and six months for \u201cinsulting the President.\u201d
\nThroughout much of her time in prison the authorities have imposed additional punitive punishments upon Hedayat, such as imprisonment alongside drug trafficking convicts and the denial of visitation with her family.
\nBahareh Hedayat was the winner of the 2012 Harald Edelstam Defence of Human Rights Award.<\/p>\n
Follow the\u00a0Campaign on Facebook and Twitter
\nFor the latest human rights developments in Iran visit the Campaign\u2019s website
\nFor interviews, contact:
\nHadi Ghaemi at +1-917-669-5996, hadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
August 28, 2015\u2014The student and women’s rights activist Bahareh Hedayat, imprisoned for over five years in Iran, has been given an additional two-year prison sentence, days after receiving release orders<\/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":[69],"class_list":["post-822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-bahareh-hedayat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822","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=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}