Souri Babaei and Reza Behroozi, Civil Activist Couple, Sentenced to Prison Again; Two-Year Sentence Issued for Dina Ghalibaf

A knowledgeable source informed Voice of America that Souri Babaei Chegini and her husband Reza Behroozi have been sentenced to 9 months and 1 year in prison, respectively. Reports also indicate a two-year prison sentence for Dina Ghalibaf, a student activist, and a retrial for Vafa Ahmadpour, a imprisoned artist in Adelabad Shiraz. An informed source close to Souri Babaei Chegini, a political prisoner and women's rights activist in Qazvin, told Voice of America on Thursday, July 25, that judicial authorities, while removing her electronic ankle bracelet after the end of her sentence, informed her of an additional 9 months of suspended prison time. According to this report, when Mrs. Babaei Chegini went to the judicial authority to remove the electronic ankle bracelet, officials told her that 'her cases are not fully closed' and that 'seven more months of imprisonment' remain, which 'with the aggregation of the sentence, two months have also been added,' and 'the officials there surprisingly told her that they do not know why two more months were added with the aggregation of the cases.' According to this informed source, her husband Mohammad Reza Morad Behroozi, a civil activist and former political prisoner also known as Reza Behroozi, has been sentenced to one year of imprisonment for releasing an audio file. Based on the statements from this source, judicial authorities have not yet summoned Mr. Morad Behroozi to serve his sentence. While Vafa Ahmadpour, a rapper known as Vafadar, is serving his one-year prison sentence in Adelabad Shiraz, he has been summoned again for trial in a new case at the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Shiraz. According to the report by HRANA, the media organ of human rights activists in Iran, on Thursday, a hearing regarding the charges against Vafa Ahmadpour, known as 'Vafadar,' titled 'Gathering and Collusion to Commit a Crime Against Internal Security by Accompanying Opponents of the Regime,' was held on July 18 at the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Shiraz. According to this report, Mr. Ahmadpour 'has recently developed diabetes in prison' and needs medical care. Vafa Ahmadpour was arrested on May 9 in Shiraz and transferred to the Shiraz Intelligence Department detention center known as Plaque 100. After a while, he was taken to Adelabad prison. This protesting artist had previously been arrested for a period last February and was later released from Evin prison in Tehran after posting bail. Sources reported that the two-year prison sentence and fine for Dina Ghalibaf, a journalist, which had previously been issued by Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, has been 'exactly' confirmed in the appeals court. However, this sentence has been 'suspended for five years.' Dina Ghalibaf was arrested on April 17 this year in Tehran and transferred to the women's ward of Evin prison a few days later. According to the issued sentence, Dina Ghalibaf is 'obligated to refrain from communication and socializing with individuals active in political and social fields.' Previously, Narges Mohammadi, a human rights defender in prison, revealed that she saw Dina Ghalibaf with 'bruises' in Evin prison, who had been a 'narrator of sexual abuse.' Dina Ghalibaf, born in 2001, is a student activist at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and has collaborated with some media outlets. She was released on bail from Evin prison in May of this year.