Iran | trial | sentence
Paris, France | AFP | Tuesday 4/26/2022 - 18:32 UTC+2 | 405 words
RECASTS, CHANGES dateline, ADDS reaction
Judicial authorities in Iran said Tuesday Ali Younesi and Amir-Hossein Moradi had been sentenced on charges including sabotage and collaboration with outlawed anti-regime groups.
"This unjust conviction is the result of an extrajudicial process engineered by the security agencies, intended to repress and create fear amongst students," said the director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
"It lacks all credibility," he added.
IHR said both young men were students at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology, one of the country's most prestigious educational institutions.
It said Younesi, a computer engineering student, had won medals at national and international astronomy olympiads, while Moradi had won a medal at a national astronomy olympiad.
It said they had been under arrest in pre-trial detention since April 2020.
"Universities should be centres of free thought and expression, yet in Iran countless students have been expelled and or imprisoned for exercising these rights," said Center for Human Rights in Iran executive director Hadi Ghaemi.
"Iran's judiciary should free Amir-Hossein Moradi and Ali Younesi, and stop criminalising free speech and thought," he added.
The Scholars at Risk network added it was "deeply concerned" about the sentence imposed "in apparent retaliation for their nonviolent expressive activity."
Iran judiciary spokesman Zabihollah Khodayian told state television they received 10-year terms for "destruction of public installations", five years for plotting against national security and "cooperation with hostile groups", and another for propaganda against the Islamic republic.
They will serve 10 years, "the heaviest sentence" which was imposed, Khodayian said.
In May 2020, the judiciary said the pair were accused of having been in contact with "counter-revolutionary groups", notably the banned and exiled People's Mujahedeen, which authorities have previously blamed for unrest in Iran.
Their lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said he would appeal against the "heavy" ruling.
"The two young men confessed after 50 days in isolation, without any telephone call and without the right of access to a lawyer," he wrote on Twitter.
Ali Younesi's brother, Reza Younesi, told Iran Human Rights that there was "no evidence against them" and they had asked the judge to watch the video of their interrogations.
"But the ministry of intelligence refused to give the video to the judge. Even the judge objected to the ministry of intelligence," he said.
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