Court Sentences Eisa Saharkhiz to 6 Months in Prison

Eisa Saharkhiz's lawyer, a jailed journalist, announced that his client was sentenced to six months in prison last week under a new ruling for "insulting the head of the judiciary." Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai said in an interview with ILNA news agency on Wednesday, July 7, that his client would appeal this ruling for the case to be reviewed in the appeals court. According to Mr. Alizadeh Tabatabai, the charge against his client is a "political crime" and based on the new political crime law, "the court should have been held with a jury present," but the court believed that Mr. Saharkhiz's criticism of Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, had a "personal" nature. The report states that the court was ultimately held without a jury. Previously, Mohsen Eftekhari, head of the criminal courts in Tehran, had announced that the "first political crime case" was formed with the referral of Eisa Saharkhiz's case to the criminal court of Tehran province. However, Mr. Eftekhari announced on October 18 of last year that this court disagreed with the government employees' court regarding the classification of the journalist's charges as a political crime. Eisa Saharkhiz, who has been detained since November 2, 2015, remains imprisoned and was sentenced to 21 months in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court last September. He was also sentenced to an additional six months in prison in the final months of last year for "spreading falsehoods" against the Supreme Leader in the initial court. No report has been published regarding the outcome of the review of this ruling in the appeals court. Following the issuance of this ruling, Mr. Saharkhiz went on a hunger strike for several days in protest of the "repeated violations of laws by security officials and the failure to respect prisoners' rights." He had previously gone on hunger strikes several times. Eisa Saharkhiz was also arrested in July 2009 during widespread arrests of journalists and was sentenced to three years in prison for "insulting the leadership and propaganda against the regime," from which he was released on October 3, 2013. In addition to Eisa Saharkhiz, several other journalists, including Hengameh Shahidi and Ehsan Mazandarani, are also imprisoned. Six managers of Telegram channels who were arrested since March of last year are still imprisoned, and some of them have gone on hunger strikes in protest of their case status. The state of media and press freedom in Iran was ranked 165 out of 180 countries in the 2017 Reporters Without Borders report. Meanwhile, several Telegram channels reported on Tuesday, July 6, that Hamed Talebi and Ali Akbari, editors of the Fars news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, were arrested for their alleged role in "organizing" protests against Hassan Rouhani during the Quds Day rally. According to reports, the two Fars news agency editors were released after a few hours of detention. Some Telegram channels close to Hassan Rouhani accused Mr. Talebi of "organizing" protesters against Hassan Rouhani during the Quds Day rally, but he denied this accusation before his arrest. During last Friday's rally, some shouted slogans such as "Death to the hypocrite" and "Rouhani, your connection with Banisadr is blessed" around Hassan Rouhani, and the release of videos and images of this has received widespread attention in Iran. In this context, several reformists and supporters of Hassan Rouhani have called for action against those insulting him.