Prison Sentence and Fines Confirmed for Mashallah Karami and His Supporters Ahead of the Second Anniversary of Mahsa's Death

As the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death in custody and the onset of nationwide protests approaches, the appeals court has sentenced Mashallah Karami, the father of executed protester Mohammad Mehdi Karami, to four years and three months in prison for part of his case. In this context, five citizens have been convicted for financially supporting him. The Tehran-based newspaper Shargh reported on Tuesday, September 20, citing Ali Sharifzadeh, Mashallah Karami's defense attorney, that Karami was sentenced to 'three years and seven months' for 'conspiracy and collusion' and 'eight months in prison' for 'propaganda against the regime' in the appeals stage. His lawyer announced that he would appeal the ruling and expressed hope that 'by filing a request for retrial, the Supreme Court' of the Islamic Republic would overturn this ruling. Previously, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Karaj had sentenced Mr. Karami to a total of six years in prison for these charges. Another part of the case against the father of Mohammad Mehdi Karami, one of the young protesters executed after the nationwide protests in 2021 related to the killing of a Basij member named Rouhollah Ajamian, saw the 102nd branch of the Criminal Court of the city of Nazarabad accuse him of 'money laundering and obtaining illegitimate wealth' and sentenced him to 'eight years and ten months in prison and a fine of 1 billion and 900 million tomans' as well as 'confiscation of assets.' Ali Sharifzadeh had previously stated that the charges against his client do not align with his activities and that Mashallah Karami's actions were 'distributing food for the needy,' funded by public donations. The lawyer emphasized that the assets of Mohammad Mehdi Karami's father 'have no role in the security charges' attributed to him. In the same context, in recent days, five citizens were sentenced to pay 'six million tomans' in fines by the appeals court of Alborz province for 'aiding and abetting conspiracy and collusion against the security' of the Islamic Republic through 'financial support to Mashallah Karami.' Attorney Payam Darvishan announced on Tuesday, September 20, that 'the two-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting conspiracy and collusion against the security' of the Islamic Republic for 'the benefactors in Mashallah Karami's case was converted to a fine of six million tomans' in the appeals court of Alborz province, stating that they 'were also sentenced to 91 days in prison by the general criminal court of Nazarabad for the same act under the charge of aiding in obtaining illegitimate wealth despite their complete integrity.' This attorney has emphasized that he has appealed the ruling and is 'waiting for a fair ruling from the appeals court' in this province. Mashallah Karami, the father of Mohammad Mehdi Karami, one of the executed protesters of the nationwide protests in 2021, was arrested on August 31, 2022, by the intelligence forces of the Islamic Republic, who confiscated his and his family's electronic devices and blocked their bank cards during the arrest. This father of a victim was transferred from the intelligence department's detention center to the central prison of Karaj on November 6 and has been in prison since then. Simultaneously, the website 'Hengaw' reported an increase in pressure on the families of victims ahead of the anniversary of the nationwide protests in 2021 following Mahsa Amini's death in the custody of the morality police, stating that since the beginning of last year, 'at least 150' victims' families have been arrested, and sentences of 'imprisonment and flogging' have been issued for 21 of them. This report includes statistics from the beginning of 2023, specifically from December 10, 2022, to September 1, 2024, indicating that '58 women and 88 men' were among the detainees, and '13 of these individuals were under 18 years old.' According to this report, some of these individuals have been arrested more than once.