Soheil Arabi's Death Sentence 'Overturned'

According to news websites, Branch 34 of the Supreme Court of Iran has 'overturned' Soheil Arabi's death sentence and has 'ordered a retrial' in this case, meaning he will be 're-tried.' The Khabar website, close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, reported on Saturday, July 6, that Branch 34 of the Supreme Court deemed Mr. Arabi's conviction to death for 'sabb al-nabi' (insulting the Prophet) as 'lacking legal validity' and thus ordered a retrial in this case. Earlier reports indicated that Mr. Arabi's death sentence had been confirmed by Branch 41 of the Supreme Court, presided over by Ali Razini. He was sentenced to death on September 8, 2014, in Branch 76 of the Tehran Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Siamak Modir Khorasani. Soheil Arabi was arrested in November 2013 by agents of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps along with his wife, Nasrin Naeimi, who was released a few hours later. According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Mr. Arabi had 'eight Facebook pages under different names' and was charged with several accusations, including 'insulting the Imams and the Prophet,' due to his writings on those pages. 'An informed source' had previously told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: 'According to Article 262 of the Islamic Penal Code, if a person insults the Prophet of Islam, the punishment is death, but the following article, Article 264, explicitly states that if the accused merely claims in court that the insulting remarks were made out of anger, quoting, or by mistake, his death sentence will be converted to 74 lashes.' According to this report, Soheil Arabi has repeatedly stated in court that he wrote these comments 'under inappropriate conditions' and is 'regretful,' but 'disregarding these statements,' three judges sentenced him to death while two others sentenced him to imprisonment. According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Mr. Arabi is also facing two other cases due to his writings on Facebook, which have already resulted in confirmed sentences. In this report, he was fined 500,000 tomans and sentenced to 30 lashes for insulting Ahmad Jannati, the Secretary of the Guardian Council, and Gholamali Haddad Adel, a representative of Tehran in the Parliament, through his writings on Facebook, and this sentence was confirmed in the appeals court. He was also sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, and 'propaganda against the regime,' which was also confirmed in the appeals court.