ABC blog

An Iranian court has sentenced lawyer Mohammad Najafi and 10 civil society activists to jail time and flogging for charges stemming in part from their work publishing information on the case of Vahid Heidari, a young man who died in law enforcement custody in January 2018 after being arrested in the course of protests then sweeping the country.

Najafi writes in his just-released report of the case: “The verdict of the Branch One Appeals Court of Markazi Province in Arak has been handed down. The original court’s decision has been upheld. The verdict issued for myself, Mr. Ali Bagheri, and Mr. Abbas Safari has been confirmed without any changes: three years’ prison and 74 lashes, the maximum enforceable punishment (one year of prison and 74 lashes for ‘disrupting public order,’ two years’ prison for spreading falsehoods, and of course Mr. Bagheri also has a sentence of six months’ prison for insulting the armed forces.) The judgment against the other individual convicted – including six of my clients – has been turned into a suspended sentence of five years.”

The court verdict mentions charges of “false and deceitful reports, including those of the murder of Vahid Heidari by armed forces and security forces” as having been entered against some of the defendants, including Mr. Bagheri.

Vahid Heidari died in custody at a police station in Arak on January 5, 2018, just days after he had been arrested in the course of protests then sweeping the country. An informed source tells Abdorrahman Boroumand Center (ABC) that “Deep fractures and protrusions were on his head: they looked like places where he’d been treated in a physically rough way.”

Though officials have denied any connection between Heidari’s arrest and the protests, claiming that he was arrested for drug-related activities, their statements regarding the case have not been consistent.

Those acquainted with Heidari told an ABC researcher: “Mr. Heidari’s family have been pressured severely by security forces to remain quiet about the incident. People who knew Mr. Heidari have testified that he was not an addict or dealer, but rather a healthy, hardworking young man.”

Najafi was one the more than 150 legal experts who signed an open letter to the head of Iran’s judiciary following the winter protests. The legal experts raised illegal treatment of protesters and announced that they would defend arrested protesters pro bono.

Arash Keykhosravi and Payam Derofshan, two other lawyers who signed the letter and had taken on the legal cases of Najafi and others arrested in Arak, have also been arrested. Keykhosravi remains in prison, while Derafshan has been temporarily released on bail.