{"id":21457,"date":"2018-11-07T07:22:50","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T07:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21457"},"modified":"2018-11-07T07:22:50","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T07:22:50","slug":"irans-judiciary-sentences-24-people-over-anti-government-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21457","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s judiciary sentences 24 people over anti-government protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1400316\/middle-east\" readability=\"47\">\n<p>\nLONDON: Iran\u2019s judiciary has convicted at least 24 protesters on what Human Rights Watch has called \u201cvaguely defined national security charges,\u201d according to a statement from the group.<br \/>Prison sentences range from six months to six years for the 24 people, who were among 50 arrested on August 2 during anti-government protests in Tehran.<br \/>According to the HRW statement citing sources close to the case, Iranian prosecutors charged them with \u201cassembly and collusion against national security\u201d due to \u201cparticipating in a protest without a permit that disrupted public order.\u201d<br \/>On October 28, authorities also arrested a human rights lawyer over the reporting of a protester\u2019s death in detention.<br \/>In the sentencing of at least two of the people, including 19-year-old Saba Kordafshari, the evidence presented by the prosecution was based entirely on social media posts they made about the protests.<br \/>Two sources reported that prosecutors and prison officials \u201cdenied the detainees access to a lawyer\u201d throughout the investigation and that the protesters were pressured into pleading guilty.<br \/>Michael Page, deputy director of HRW Middle East said: \u201cIranian government officials repeatedly advertise to the world that the repeated protests in the country signal that there are real freedoms in Iran, while these same protesters languish in prison for years.<br \/>\u201cProsecuting peaceful protesters will only add fuel to Iranians\u2019 boiling frustration and discontent with the situation.<br \/>\u201cCountries that engage with Iran should press authorities for independent investigations into the proliferating number of abuses committed by Iran\u2019s repressive intelligence and security apparatus,\u201d Page added.<br \/>On July 31, protests against poor economic conditions and corruption that began in the city of Esfahan spread to other cities, including Karaj in Alborz province and the capital Tehran.<br \/>According to official government reports, at least 30 people have been killed in widespread demonstrations since January.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON: Iran\u2019s judiciary has convicted at least 24 protesters on what Human Rights Watch has called \u201cvaguely defined national security charges,\u201d according to a statement from the group.Prison sentences range from six months to six years for the 24 people, who were among 50 arrested on August 2 during anti-government protests in Tehran.According to the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}