Elite Students Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi Sentenced to 16 Years Imprisonment

According to state media, Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi have been sentenced to a total of 16 years imprisonment by Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court. The students were sentenced to ten years imprisonment on charges of acting against national security, five years imprisonment for assembly and collusion against the system and a year for propaganda against the system.

Ali’s brother, Reza Younesi told Iran Human Rights: “Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi will be appealing this verdict. There was no evidence against them. They asked the judge to watch the video of their interrogations but the Ministry of Intelligence refused to give the video to the judge. Even the judge objected to the Ministry of Intelligence.”

Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student at Sharif University of Technology, and Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student at the university, were arrested without a legal summons on 10 April 2020 and were held in solitary confinement for two months before being transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence’s (MOIS) Ward 209 in Evin Prison.

While at high school, Ali Younesi won silver and gold at the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In his senior year of high school, he won the gold medal with the Iranian national team at the 2018 World Astronomy Olympiad in China. Amir Hossein Moradi also won silver at the 2017 Iranian Astronomy Olympiad.