IHR Urges Iranian Civil Society and Human Rights Activists to Call for Arash Sadeghi's Release

Arash Sadeghi was detained by Iranian authorities on Tuesday June 7 while he was at the Shahid Moghaddas Prosecutor’s office in Evin Prison following up on a summons order.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a revolutionary court for "Assembly and collusion against national security", "Insulting the Supreme Leader", "Forming illegal groups", and "Propaganda against the system". Additonally, Ghazipour Arab, the head of branch 54 of the Tehran Appeals Court declared a four-year suspended imprisonment sentence that was previously issued to Mr. Sadeghi as enforceable.

Mr. Sadeghi's wife, Golrokh Irayee, was sentenced by a revolutionary court to six years in prison. Their friends Navid Kamran and Behnam Mousivand were sentenced by the same court to one year and three years imprisonment respectively. Sadeghi, Irayee, Kamran, and Mousivand were all arrested by Iranian authorities in September 2014, but were released after several months on heavy bail amounts.

IHR recognizes the prison sentences issued to these peaceful civil rights defenders as part of a larger crackdown by Iranian authorities on Iran's civil society. IHR strongly condemns these judicial sentences, especially the arrest of Arash Sadeghi, and calls on Iran's civil society to not be silent toward the abuses being committed by the judicial and security institutions in Iran.