Tehran Appeals Court Confirms Prison Sentences for Asadollah Fakhimi and Houri Khanpour

The Tehran Appeals Court has upheld the definitive prison sentences of five years for Asadollah Fakhimi and three years for Houri Khanpour, which were issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Khosrow Ali-Kordi, a lawyer, announced on Wednesday, February 7, that Branch 36 of the Tehran Appeals Court confirmed a total sentence of eight years in prison for the human rights activist couple. The five-year sentence for Fakhimi and three years for Khanpour was initially issued by Branch 29 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court and has now been finalized by the appeals court. The ruling claims that these two civil activists were convicted 'for conspiracy and collusion with the intent to commit a crime against national security' and 'propaganda activities against the regime.' According to this ruling, Asadollah Fakhimi was sentenced to 'four years' for the first charge, and Houri Khanpour received 'two years,' while both activists were sentenced to 'one year each for the second charge, taking into account their time in detention.' Pouran Nazemi, a human rights activist, previously stated regarding the sentences for Khanpour and Fakhimi to Voice of America: 'In a situation where poverty, corruption, and misery prevail in the country, some who try to alleviate these pains and help prisoners are arrested and baseless accusations are made against them.' Nazemi noted that the pressure from intelligence agencies on activists by the Islamic Republic is 'greater than in all these years' and 'it does not matter if you are an environmental activist, a civil activist, or a political activist'; one of the government's tactics is to 'cut off the economic lifelines of all these activists.'