September 2, 2024 | 18:09
READING TIME: 1 minute
Hossein Shanbehzadeh, an Iranian blogger and activist long targeted by the justice system of the Islamic Republic, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for, among other things, correcting a post on the social media platform X by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and for alleged pro-Israel propaganda. This was reported by the London-based opposition broadcaster Iran International and Shargh News.
According to the TV station, Shanbehzadeh replied with a period to a tweet in which Khamenei posed with the volleyball team, and that punctuation mark was missing. The reply received more ‘likes’ than the Supreme Leader’s original post, but the activist was arrested a few weeks later in Ardabil. The Iranian judiciary then reported that an “agent of Mossad” had been detained.
Amir Raisian, Shanbehzadeh’s lawyer, told Shargh News that his client was sentenced to five years in prison for pro-Israel propaganda, four years for “insulting sacred Islamic norms,” two years for “lies,” and an additional year for propaganda against the Islamic Republic. The activist will also have to pay a fine of 50 million tomans.
According to the lawyer, Shanbehzadeh intends to appeal the sentence, specifically against the charge of pro-Israel propaganda, which he says “does not have a specific material basis.” Raisian added that this accusation is based on the writer’s private chats, not on public messages. The lawyer then disclosed some of the evidence cited against Shanbehzadeh. Among these were support for political prisoners, support for the repeal of the mandatory hijab, the tweet “no to execution,” and expressions of joy over the death in May of then-president Ebrahim Raisi.