Prison Sentences for Atena Daemi and Her Sisters on Charges of 'Insulting Officials'

The human rights news agency HRANA reports that a written ruling from the Tehran Criminal Court has sentenced Atena Daemi, a jailed civil activist, and her two sisters, Aniseh and Hanieh, to prison for the charge of 'insulting officials while performing their duties.' According to the ruling published on April 3, Judge Ali Babaei, head of the Tehran Criminal Court, stated that the charge of 'obstructing the execution of arrest' was not established, but the charge of 'insulting officials while performing their duties' was confirmed. The Tehran court sentenced each of the defendants to three months and one day in prison, considering the specific circumstances of the second and third defendants (Aniseh and Hanieh Daemi), the court deemed it inappropriate to enforce the sentence against them and suspended the execution of the sentence for one year. Last December, Atena Daemi was taken to prison to serve a seven-year sentence previously issued against her. In a trial presided over by Judge Moghiseh in March 2015, she was accused of 'gathering and colluding and engaging in propaganda against the state,' 'insulting sacred beliefs and leadership,' and 'concealing evidence of a crime.' However, Amnesty International states that Daemi 'has criticized officials regarding the record of executions in Iran through Facebook posts, painted murals criticizing executions on walls, visited the graves of those killed in the 2009 elections, and informed human rights groups abroad about political prisoners.' Reports indicate that when officials went to transfer Atena Daemi to their home, other incidents occurred; at that time, Masoumeh Naimati, Atena Daemi's mother, told the International Human Rights Campaign in Iran that her daughter faced five new charges due to a complaint from the Revolutionary Guards, including the new charge of 'obstructing the execution of a sentence.' In an open letter published on December 2, 2016, Daemi described her arrest, stating that she asked the officers to show her the arrest warrant, and they beat her and her sister without presenting any warrant. According to this civil activist, the officers told her during her transfer to prison, 'We will cook you a dish that will make you forget about getting out of prison.' After Atena Daemi's arrest, she and her father filed a complaint against the Revolutionary Guards for 'entering without permission' into their residence; however, the status of this complaint is currently unclear. Last month, the website of the International Human Rights Campaign in Iran reported that Daemi's two sisters and her sister's husband were summoned to the fourth branch of the 'Shahid Moqaddas Prosecutor's Office' located in Evin Prison with a 'complaint from judicial agents' against them and 'for some explanations.'