Indictment Issued for 17 Lawyers in Mashhad on Charges of 'Propaganda Against the Regime'

Two lawyers have reported that the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office in Mashhad has issued an indictment against 17 lawyers in the city on charges of 'propaganda against the regime.' Sina Yousofi and Marzieh Mohabi announced this on their social media accounts on Saturday, February 1. Mohabi stated that 'the complainant and investigator is the Intelligence Department, which has interpreted the tweets and stories of the lawyers as propaganda against the regime, and the Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office has complied in absolute obedience.' Yousofi confirmed this news, adding that the investigative branch has followed the directives of Branch 5 of the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad, 'despite the previous issuance of a prohibition and suspension of prosecution, it has proceeded to issue a summons for trial.' The names of these lawyers include 'Amir Dokht Bahareh Bazrgar, Amin Shahla, Sajjad Javadi, Saeed Javadi, Sahar Dashti Daghiani, Elham Arasteh, Mitra Izadi-Far, and Jafar Sagharvaniyan, Rouhollah Hosseini, Enayatollah Karamati, Faezah Seydi, Vajiheh Qureshi Yazdi, Ali-Asghar Dashti, Farzaneh Safari, Kazem Chazegi, Mohammad-Reza Yazdani, and Mehdi Mohammadi Hosseinian.' The mentioned lawyers have called on their colleagues to be the 'voice' of these 17 individuals and support them. Although lawyers and legal experts in the Islamic Republic have always been under pressure, after the nationwide protests of 2021 following the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in custody, and the lawyers' support for the protesters, the fabrication of cases against them has significantly increased. Shortly after the onset of these protests, the Islamic Republic arrested at least 44 lawyers and sentenced several of them to imprisonment, disqualification from practicing law, and other social deprivations. This action came after many lawyers announced that they would provide free legal representation for the detainees amid the widespread arrests of protesters. Recently, Babak Paknia, a lawyer, reported that he was summoned to the disciplinary prosecutor's office of the Central Bar Association due to 'explaining the rights of detainees' from the 2021 protests.