Reza Entesari, the third manager of 'Majzoban Noor', sentenced to prison, flogging, and exile

Reza Entesari, a manager of the Majzoban Noor website, was sentenced in absentia by the Tehran Revolutionary Court to seven years of prison and 74 lashes. The Majzoban Noor Twitter account, which covers news related to the Gonabadi dervishes, reported that Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court also sentenced Mr. Entesari to two years of exile to Khaf, two years of travel ban, and two years of deprivation from membership in political and social groups and media activities. Reza Entesari is the third manager of 'Majzoban Noor' to face heavy sentences from the Revolutionary Court. Before him, Mostafa Abdi, another manager of this website, was sentenced to 26 years and three months in prison, 148 lashes, two years of exile to Sistan and Baluchestan, two years of travel ban, and two years of deprivation from membership in political and social groups and media activities. Kasra Noori, another imprisoned manager of this website, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison, 74 lashes, and two years of exile to the city of Thalath Babajani along with social deprivations. Reza Entesari, Kasra Noori, Mostafa Abdi, Sina Entesari, Saleh al-Din Moradi, and Mohammad Sharifi-Moghadam announced in an open letter from Tehran's Great Prison in July of this year that they would not attend court until a public trial with fair conditions was held in public view. A protest gathering of Gonabadi dervishes on February 19 of last year around the house of Noor Ali Tabandeh, the leader of this order, turned violent with the intervention of security forces and motorcycle-clad plainclothes agents. The Majzoban Noor website played an important role during these violent events and afterwards, in the house arrest of the leader of this order and in publishing news related to the situation of detained dervishes. This website temporarily halted its activities but resumed them, especially on social media, with the continued house arrest of Mr. Tabandeh, and is currently publishing news related to the sentences issued for hundreds of imprisoned dervishes and their conditions in prisons. According to reports, during the clashes in late February in Pasdaran Street in Tehran, 500 Gonabadi dervishes were arrested, of which 360 are still imprisoned. Mohammad Reza Thalath, one of the Gonabadi dervishes who was accused by the court of having run over three police officers with a bus, was executed on the morning of June 18, 2018. International organizations, including Amnesty International, have previously expressed concern about the situation of imprisoned dervishes in Iran, especially women dervishes. In a statement in June, this organization stated that 'deliberate denial of medical treatment to prisoners is illegal, inhumane, cruel, and amounts to torture... Women prisoners from the Gonabadi dervish community should not have been detained in the first place, and the fact that Iranian authorities are subjecting these prisoners to abuse and torture is abhorrent.'