Zia Nabavi and Hasti Amiri, Student Activists, Imprisoned

Hasti Amiri and Zia Nabavi, student activists and protesters against the serial poisoning of schoolgirls, were arrested on Saturday, April 7, after being summoned to Evin Court and transferred to Evin Prison to serve their sentences. They had been sentenced to one year in prison for 'propaganda against the regime' after participating in a gathering on March 7, 2023, at Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran to protest the serial poisonings of schoolgirls. Mr. Nabavi, a former political prisoner, recently described the 'legal prosecution' and 'punishment' of those protesting the poisonings as 'ridiculous' and 'oppressive' in a series of tweets. He also criticized the lack of 'any convincing explanation to the public' regarding the serial poisonings in predominantly girls' schools in winter 2023 and the failure to hold accountable the 'perpetrators and instigators' of these incidents. The one-year prison sentence for Zia Nabavi and Hasti Amiri has faced criticism from students and alumni of Allameh Tabatabai University. More than 100 students from this university protested the prison sentences for these two student activists in a statement last November. The execution of the one-year prison sentence for Jamal Ameli, a political detainee, also took place on Saturday. This political detainee had previously announced his one-year prison sentence by sharing an image of his summons to Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in District 33 of Tehran. The charges against this citizen include 'conspiracy and collusion' and 'propaganda against the regime.' Jamal Ameli mentioned in a post on the social media platform 'X' that his case was related to the seizure of his mobile phone during a raid by the intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at a birthday party. He did not provide any details about the content of his mobile phone that led to the formation of this case. Following requests from dozens of human rights organizations, member countries of the United Nations Human Rights Council extended the mandate of Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, and the international fact-finding committee on Iran for another year on April 5. In his final report in March 2023, Javaid Rehman expressed concern about the increase in executions and the continued violation of human rights in Iran. Zia Nabavi and Hasti Amiri, student activists, have once again been summoned for the execution of their prison sentences. Protests against the prison sentences for Zia Nabavi and Hasti Amiri: We are facing a chain of various forms of repression at the university. Hasti Amiri and Zia Nabavi were sentenced to one year in prison. The president of Allameh University stated: We had a 'paternal' perspective; 4 or 5 students were deprived of education in the 'recent events.'