A report on the latest situation of Abbas Lesani in his fourth year of imprisonment
17-January-2022
Category: ethnic minorities
16-January-2022
Newsgroup: Ethnic Minorities –
Breathing in Confinement: January 15, 2022, marks the fourth anniversary of the imprisonment of Abbas Lesani, a civil activist from Azerbaijan-Iran, imprisoned in Ardabil Prison. On January 15, 2019, after appearing in Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court in Tabriz, Abbas Lesani was arrested and transferred to Ardabil Prison. He has been sentenced to a total of 10 years and 10 months in prison in two separate cases.
According to “Breathing in Confinement”, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, on Saturday, January 15, 2022, Abbas Lesani entered the fourth year of his imprisonment.
On January 15, 2019 after appearing in the Revolutionary Court of Tabriz, Mr. Lesani was arrested and transferred to Ardabil Prison. He suffers from heart disease, lumbar disc herniation and knee problems as a result of pressures inflicted on him while in prison as well having been denied medical care.
According to an informed source, at the request of judicial officials and after the assessment of three judges in the Ardabil Court of Appeal, Mr. Lesani’s case was recently referred to Tehran for further investigation.
After his arrest, Abbas Lesani was sentenced by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Ardabil to eight years in prison as well as two years in exile in Yazd on charges of “forming a group with the intention of disrupting national security.” In October 2019, his sentence was increased to 15 years in prison and 2 years in exile in Yazd by the Court of Appeals in Ardabil, presided over by Judge Atbati who had been appointed as Chief Justice of Ardabil Province and the head of Branch 1 of the Court of Appeals.
In July 2020, Mr. Lisani’s appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court, and therefore, under Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison was applicable to him. However, beforehand, Branch 1 of the Court of Appeals in Ardabil had rejected the request of the Revolutionary Court to enforce the law on reducing the prison sentence for Abbas Lesani.
In another case, in May 2019, Mr. Lesani was sentenced to 10 months in prison by Branch 26 of the East Azarbaijan Court of Appeals on charges of “propaganda activities against the regime and in support of opposition groups.”
He was recently sent to the forensic medicine department because of his serious physical condition. Mr. Lesani’s referral was because of the results of his investigations and as per his doctor’s opinion that he needed immediate lumbar disc surgery. Forensic medicine also wrote a letter confirming that Mr. Lesani should be referred to and assessed by a specialist within the next few days.
It needs to be mentioned that Abbas Lesani suffers from heart disease for which also he needs to be monitored.
Abbas Lesani has a history of several times of arrests and convictions for his activities. In one of his last cases on July 2, 2018, a few days before the annual gathering in “Qalee Babak” where he had attended along with three other citizens living in Ardabil, Mr. Lesani was arrested by the intelligence agents. Later, on Wednesday, July 11, he was released on bail of 50 million tomans. Mr. Lesani had released a video in which he was encouraging people to attend the event.