Nasim Soltanbeygi to appeal three year and seven month prison sentence
On 28 August 2023, the appeal request of woman human rights defender Nasim Soltanbeygi was referred to Branch 36 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. In July, the woman human rights defender was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison on the charge of “gathering and colluding against the national security” and eight months in prison on the charge of “propaganda against the state” by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Nasim Soltanbeygi is a woman human rights defender and journalist working on women’s rights issues in Iran. She has written for different journals, including Peace Mark, about social issues and the human rights situation in the most disadvantaged places in Iran. Previously, she was arrested three times: in 2006 in a peaceful gathering for women’s rights demands; in 2007 for her work towards the rights of the university students; and in 2012 she was arrested and served a one-year prison sentence for her human rights work.
On 28 August 2023, the appeal request of woman human rights defender Nasim Soltanbeygi was referred to Branch 36 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. In July, the woman human rights defender was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison on the charge of “gathering and colluding against the national security” and eight months in prison on the charge of “propaganda against the state” by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Nasim Soltanbeygi is a woman human rights defender and journalist working on women’s rights issues in Iran. She has written for different journals, including Peace Mark, about social issues and the human rights situation in the most disadvantaged places in Iran. Previously, she was arrested three times: in 2006 in a peaceful gathering for women’s rights demands; in 2007 for her work towards the rights of the university students; and in 2012 she was arrested and served a one-year prison sentence for her human rights work.
On 3 July 2023, Nasim Soltanbeygi was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison on the charge of “gathering and colluding against the national security” and eight months in prison on the charge of “propaganda against the state” by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. The verdict also entails a two-year travel ban and a two-year ban from membership in political and social groups. The woman human rights defender has appealed the sentence. If this sentence comes into effect, the woman human rights defender will have to serve the sentence of three years and seven months in prison after the application of article 134 of Islamic Penal Code.
On 11 January 2023, Nasim Soltanbeygi was arrested at the airport in the context of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests by intelligence agents and was arbitrarily detained for one month in Ward 2A of Evin prison, before being released on bail of 10 billion IRR. However, the judicial harassment of the woman human rights defender continued after her conditional release and she was summoned for interrogations at least three times in May 2023 alone. In the indictment, the prosecutor has asked for “the most severe punishment as the defendant has not collaborated during the interrogations.” This has been used as a grounds to deny the woman human rights defender access to the amnesty scheme. In February 2023, on the occasion of 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, hundreds of prisoners, including human rights defenders who were detained on similar charges, were released from prison as part of a general amnesty announced by the Iranian judiciary.
Front Line Defenders is seriously alarmed about the arrests, temporary detentions, physical assaults and legal actions against human rights defenders in Iran. Front Line Defenders is particularly concerned by the breach of international human rights law in Iran’s treatment of human rights defenders, where hundreds of human rights defenders have been arrested, charged and subjected to hefty prison sentences without adherence to due process or fair trials and excluded from general public amnesty.
Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the judicial harassment of Nasim Soltanbeygi. Front Line Defenders believes that the woman human rights defender Nasim Soltanbeygi is being targeted as a reprisal for her peaceful human rights work towards the promotion of women’s rights and freedom of expression in Iran, and her case is illustrative of a broader pattern and wide crackdown on human rights defenders in the country.
