Protests Against Whipping Sentence for Yazd City Council President

The President of the Supreme Council of Provinces criticized the whipping sentence issued for the President of the Islamic Council of Yazd, citing his 'steadfastness' in defending the rights of Spenta Niknam, a Zoroastrian member of this council. Niknam, who was a member of the Yazd City Council for four years starting in 2013, was re-elected in 2017, but his membership was suspended due to a complaint from a conservative candidate who failed to secure enough votes to enter the council, citing 'the Administrative Justice Court's ruling and his non-Muslim status.' The suspension of Niknam's membership solely on religious grounds faced widespread criticism both inside and outside Iran, and the dispute between the Parliament and the Guardian Council regarding Niknam was eventually referred to the Expediency Discernment Council, which voted in favor of his return to the Yazd City Council. The complainant, Gholamali Sefid, who explicitly defended Niknam's right to return to the council, is Ali-Asghar Bagheri, the same defeated rival of Niknam. Bagheri is a fellow townsman and comrade of Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who fought in the 1980s at the front in Susangerd, and has been known for distributing pamphlets called 'Jom'e Nameh' during Friday prayers in Yazd. In an interview with the Jamaran website, Sefid stated that he was sentenced to 37 lashes and a fine of one million rials for 'insult, spreading falsehoods, and defamation' due to Bagheri's complaint. His sentence is suspended for one year due to his 'old age,' but he has expressed a preference for it to be executed, as he will be older next year and 'is not going to silence himself.' Sefid had referred to Bagheri as an 'extremist' in a speech, and Bagheri has claimed that Sefid insulted him with this remark. Morteza Alaviri, the President of the Supreme Council of Provinces, commented on the whipping sentence for the Yazd City Council President, stating, 'I believe the reason for this limitation is his steadfastness in defending the rights of Mr. Spenta Niknam.' Alaviri added that Sefid 'has said nothing but the truth' and that 'restrictive' actions against council members as representatives of the people 'limit their council duties.' He also urged the judiciary to 'prevent dual treatment in judicial authorities and create an environment to preserve the freedom of council members.' Previously, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardian Council, had declared the annulment of Spenta Niknam's membership as 'definitive and irreversible,' stating that the election of a religious minority in Yazd was 'against Sharia.' The Zoroastrian population in Yazd is estimated at around five thousand according to some unofficial statistics, and not all are eligible to vote. Mohammad Khatami, the former President of Iran, reacted to Spenta Niknam's situation and the prevention of his presence in the Yazd City Council, stating that Iran has 'regressed a hundred years' in terms of democracy, justice, and freedom of expression and thought.'