Ten-Month Prison Sentence for Abolfazl Ghadiani; 'I Eagerly Go to Prison'

Abolfazl Ghadiani, a political activist and critic of Ali Khamenei who has made sharp criticisms of the Supreme Leader in recent months, announced on Friday, July 9, that he received a notification and two summonses from the judiciary of the Islamic Republic. In a note published by the 'Kalameh' website, Ghadiani wrote: 'On Thursday, July 8, I learned that a notification and two summonses were registered in the judicial system in my name, spaced a few days apart. The notification contains a ten-month prison sentence for the crime of propaganda against the regime, which was recorded by Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, but it lacks the name and signature of the court president, which is illegal.' He added: 'The first summons is for attendance at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran regarding a complaint against you for propaganda against the Islamic Republic, with the date of attendance set for July 12, 1402, and the second summons is for attendance at Branch 1025 of the Criminal Court in the Government Employees Judicial Complex in Tehran, for July 18, regarding a complaint against you for spreading falsehoods in cyberspace.' Abolfazl Ghadiani emphasized: 'The charges against me are one of the crimes that Ali Khamenei, the power-hungry autocrat of Iran, is constantly committing, but the appointed and obedient prosecutor has attributed them to me and others like me.' He further stated: 'As I have repeatedly declared, I consider the Revolutionary Courts and Prosecutor's Offices illegal based on Articles 156, 172, and 173, and the rulings issued by these authorities are also illegal, as per Article 168 of the Constitution and the note under Article 20 of the law establishing public and revolutionary courts approved in 1994 and amended in 2002, which stipulates that political and press crimes must be exclusively and specifically tried in judicial courts with the presence of a genuine jury, not a government one, and publicly.' This political activist, critical of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, stated: 'Only with the removal of Ali Khamenei, the power-hungry autocrat of the repressive Islamic Republic, can an independent judiciary, which is one of the main pillars of establishing democracy and executing justice, be created, and I hope this important matter does not take long.' He added: 'Given this importance, I will not appear in the illegal prosecutor's office, judiciary, and courts that are under the command of security forces, all of which are under the command and control of today's power-hungry autocrat of Iran, Ali Khamenei.' Abolfazl Ghadiani concluded: 'In principle, they will summon me for the execution of the sentence; of course, I will be present for the execution of the illegal sentence, as I welcome prison despite all my illnesses and am eager to be in prison alongside my dear brothers and friends. Secondly, I consider the political prisoners in prison as evidence of the condemnation of the religious tyranny and Ali Khamenei, the self-serving autocrat of today's Iran, whose enmity with the Iranian people has been proven to all.'