Morteza Nourmohammadi Nadarli, Civil Activist, Sentenced to Imprisonment

The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Shabestar County in East Azerbaijan Province sentenced Morteza Nourmohammadi Nadarli, a civil activist, to three months and one day in prison. According to an image of the court ruling published on the news channel 'ADAP', the recent conviction is related to the charge of 'spreading falsehoods through a computer'. Morteza Nourmohammadi Nadarli was acquitted of two charges: 'insulting the leadership' and 'propagating in favor of groups or organizations opposing the regime'. According to ADAP, this Azerbaijani activist is facing another case in the Islamic Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office with the charge of 'gathering and colluding against national security'. Morteza Nourmohammadi Nadarli was arrested on September 9, 2023, and after about three months, he was released from Tabriz Central Prison on December 28, 2023, on a bail of 700 million tomans. Recently, over 760 activists launched a campaign calling for 'public trials with the presence of a jury for Azerbaijani political activists in Iran'. Amnesty International reported on April 23, 2023, that the increase in discrimination and violence against ethnic, religious, sexual minorities, and other 'marginalized groups' is systematic. This human rights organization emphasized the 'intensification of poverty and marginalization' in these areas, listing systematic discrimination cases among 'ethnic minorities including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds, and Turkmen'. The organization 'Front Line Defenders' called for the immediate release of Tahir Naqvi, a detained lawyer. Three political prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement after a hunger strike. More than 760 individuals demanded public trials with a jury for Azerbaijani political activists. Human rights sources reported that Karim Ismailzadeh and Morteza Purvin, imprisoned civil activists, are deprived of 'adequate medical services'.