Iranian human rights activist sentenced to 30 years and 111 lashes

Amir Salar Davoudi was found guilty of “propaganda against the state” for setting up a channel on Telegram denouncing human rights abuses in Iran.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iranians walk past a large picture of Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L), and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a park in Tehran, Iran, January 17, 2016. (photo credit: RAHEB HOMAVANDI/TIMA VIA REUTERS)
Iranians walk past a large picture of Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L), and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a park in Tehran, Iran, January 17, 2016.
(photo credit: RAHEB HOMAVANDI/TIMA VIA REUTERS)
An Iranian lawyer and human rights activist was sentenced to 30 years in prison and flogging by a revolutionary court, Radio Farda reported on Monday.
Amir Salar Davoudi was found guilty of “propaganda against the state” for setting up a channel on Telegram denouncing human rights abuses in Iran.
According to the report, he is also set to be flogged 111 times.
After Davoudi gave an interview to the Persian language edition of Voice of America, the lawyer was also accused of “collaborating with an enemy state.”
“He has been convicted merely for defending victims of the judiciary and security agents, political prisoners and the oppressed, as well as audaciously criticizing the corrupt, cruel and inefficient political and judicial system in Iran,” said a letter by Iranian exiled lawyers Hossein Ahmadi Niaz, Massoud Akhtari Tehrani, Mohammad Mostafaei and Mehrangiz Kar.
An excerpt of the letter was published by Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Davoudi is the third prominent lawyer currently in jail in Iran for his work.
“This shockingly harsh sentence is an outrageous injustice. Amirsalar Davoudi is blatantly being punished for his work defending human rights,” Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Philip Luther, said in a statement.
“Amirsalar Davoudi is the latest victim of a vicious crackdown waged by the Iranian authorities against human rights lawyers over the past two years, which has seen Iranian courts hand out increasingly harsh sentences to stop them from being able to carry out their work,” he added.


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