At the end of his leave, Mohammad Najafi returns to Arak Prison
8-February-2022
Category: Freedom of Expression، Prisoners
6-February-2022
Newsgroup: Freedom of Expression – Prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement: The lawyer, Mohammad Najafi, was returned to Arak Prison on Saturday, February 5, at the end of his leave. Mr. Najafi had been sent on sick leave from Arak Prison on December 19, 2021.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, at the end of his leave, and because its extension of was rejected by the judicial authorities, the lawyer, Mohammad Najafi, was returned to Arak Prison on Saturday February 5, 2022. Mr. Najafi had been sent on sick leave from Arak Prison on December 19, 2021.
He went on a hunger strike on December 11, to protest being denied of medical care when the authorities refused to grant him sick leave. He ended his hunger strike on December 14, after being taken to a hospital.
On July 3, Branch 5 of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Arak notified Mohammad Najafi of the charges brought against him in a newly opened case.
Mr. Najafi had been previously sentenced by Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court in Arak, to 3 years in prison on charges of “insulting the Supreme Leader” and to 4 months in prison by the Arak Criminal Court on charge of “spreading lies.”
In addition, in early December 2016, in the second part of his case, Mr. Najafi was charged by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Arak with “propaganda against the regime,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and “assisting a hostile government through his interviews with VOA, Radio Farda, and Persian BBC “, for which he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. But in connection with the first part of his case, Mohammad Najafi was pardoned and released from prison in April 2019. After 4 days, however, he was re-arrested for his conviction in other cases and transferred to Arak Prison.
On January 22, 2020, in another case filed against him for posting his letter on social media addressing “Ali Khamenei”, Branch 102 of the 2nd Criminal Court of Shazand, charged Mr. Najafi with “spreading lies with the intention of disturbing the public mind”, for which he was sentenced to 2 years in prison and paying 40 million rials fine. The ruling was later upheld by the Court of Appeals in Markazi Province. The verdict was issued while on December 15, 2018, he had been sentenced to one year in prison on the same charges, and his verdict also had been upheld by the Court of Appeals.
Once again in February 2020, Mohammad Najafi was sentenced to six months in prison by Branch 23 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, headed by Judge Shahmirzadi, for his speech at a ceremony held in 1995 at Gohar Eshghi’s home.
Finally, after merging of all his sentences, 10 years of imprisonment was applied to him on the charge of “assisting the hostile government through his interviews with VOA, Radio Farda and the BBC Persian”. With application of the law article on reducing the sentences, his sentence was later reduced to 4 years and 6 months in prison.
Mr. Najafi is currently serving his sentence in Arak Prison, while he has been suffering from heart disease for the past few months.