Lawyer Sentenced and Another Summoned on Charge of “Propaganda Against the State”; Judicial Pressure on Defence Lawyers Continues

Breathing in Confinement, Tuesday, 4 August 2026: Babak Eslami Farsani, a lawyer, has been sentenced to imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the state.” At the same time, another lawyer, Reza Tayebnia, has been summoned to a judicial authority in a separate case on the same charge.

According to *Breathing in Confinement*, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Babak Eslami Farsani, a lawyer and member of the Tehran Bar Association, was sentenced by Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court to nine months’ imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the state.”

According to the report, he had previously been summoned in June to Branch 4 of the Investigation Office of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office for District 33 of Tehran. Babak Eslami Farsani represented the family of Mehrshad Shahidi, who was killed during the 2022 protests in Arak. In connection with his representation of the family, a separate case had also been opened against him by the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Arak.

In a separate but related development, another lawyer, Reza Tayebnia, has been summoned to Branch 6 of the Assistant Prosecutor’s Office of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Kohgiluyeh County after receiving an official summons. He has been instructed to appear before the judicial authority to present his defence against the charge of “propaganda against the state.”

These developments come amid continuing concerns over the judicial prosecution of defence lawyers for carrying out their professional duties and representing their clients, a practice that has long been the subject of concern among human rights organisations due to its implications for the rule of law and the right to a fair trial.