Zia Nabavi's One-Year Prison Sentence Ends; Another Sentence Enforced

Amir Reysyan, a lawyer, announced on Thursday, April 14, that Zia Nabavi's one-year prison sentence has ended, but the enforcement of another sentence has begun. Mr. Nabavi was sentenced to one year in prison in 2023 for protesting against the poisoning of schoolgirls. The poisoning of students, primarily in girls' schools across many cities in Iran, began in early December 2022 amid the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests and continued until May 2023. Mr. Nabavi's sentence in this case ended on April 11 of this year, and he is now serving a one-year prison sentence related to his protests against the downing of the Ukrainian plane, which was issued in 2020. The Ukrainian plane, flight PS752, was shot down in the early hours of January 8, 2020, by at least two missiles from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing all 176 passengers, most of whom were Iranian or dual Iranian-Canadian citizens. Several political and civil activists protested the downing of this plane in the following weeks, leading to their prosecution and sentencing in revolutionary courts. Last year, in May, Mr. Nabavi published a note from inside Evin prison, reporting the presence of bedbugs in Ward 8 of the prison and the health issues faced by inmates as a result. This note led to a new legal case against him, but he was later acquitted, according to his lawyer. However, 'prison officials removed him from the ward due to this note and, by the decision of the prison's disciplinary council, transferred him to solitary confinement for a week.' Zia Nabavi, who was one of the 'starred students' in the late 2000s, was arrested on June 15, 2009, during the early days of the Green Movement protests and was released after serving eight years in prison on February 14, 2018. In recent years, he has faced various security pressures and has even been disqualified from continuing his doctoral studies.