Three Telegram Activists Sentenced to a Total of 36 Years in Prison

Several news websites reported that three 24-year-old citizens active on Telegram, who were arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in 2016, have been sentenced to a total of 36 years in prison. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported that Alireza Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi Zamanzadeh, and Mohammad Mohajer were arrested on August 3, September 4, and September 11 of last year and are currently imprisoned in Ward 8 of Evin Prison. The human rights activist group, HRANA, also reported that each of these individuals was sentenced to five years for 'conspiracy against the regime,' five years for 'insulting the sacred,' and two years for 'insulting the leader and founder of the revolution,' totaling 12 years in prison. According to this report, the last court session for these three cyber activists was held on April 10 in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati, and this sentence was communicated to the defendants on May 24. In previous years, several cyber activists have also been sentenced to long prison terms. For instance, in 2015, five defendants in a case known as the Facebook activists were sentenced to seven years, and three other defendants received five years in prison. These eight individuals were sentenced to a total of 127 years in the primary court. In the last month of the previous year, managers of several Telegram channels and a number of journalists, including Hengameh Shahidi, Morad Taghavi, Ehsan Mazandarani, and Ramin Karimi, a researcher and translator, were arrested. Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in the parliament, Hesamoddin Ashna, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani, and several members of the Hope faction in parliament reacted to these arrests, linking them to the 2017 presidential election. Hassan Rouhani, the president, and Mahmoud Alavi, the Minister of Intelligence of Iran, have stated that the government opposes the arrest of Telegram channel managers. However, the Attorney General announced that the arrested managers had 'planned for the elections.' Meanwhile, the ability to make voice calls through the Telegram application was blocked just two days after it was activated in Iran by a judicial order on April 16. This action led to protests from Ali Motahari and Masoud Pezeshkian, two vice presidents of the parliament, but Hossein Nejat, the deputy of the IRGC's intelligence organization, defended the filtering of Telegram's voice call feature, admitting that there is no control over this Telegram service. The Attorney General also stated that this feature would remain blocked at least until after the elections.