Appeals Court to Rule on Satirist’s Case without Hearing His Defense
OCTOBER
9, 2019
Iran’s Appeals Court,
which met last week to review satirist Keyomars Marzban’s appeal against a preliminary
court’s harsh sentence against him, is expected to issue a ruling next week
without hearing his defense, a source with detailed knowledge of his case told
the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on October 9, 2019.
In August 2019, Branch 15
of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced Marzban to 11 years in prison for his
peaceful writing activities under the charges of “contact with U.S. enemy
state,” 7.6 years for “insulting the sacred,” three years for “insulting the
supreme leader,” one year for “propaganda against the state,” and nine months
for “insulting officials.”
If he loses his appeal,
the 28-year-old would have to serve 11 years behind bars according to Article
134 of the Islamic Penal Code, which allows defendants to serve only the
longest sentence in cases involving multiple convictions.
Marzban was accused of
writing for U.S.-funded websites. No law that specifically bans Iranian
citizens from writing for American websites, but people in Iran can be
prosecuted for “collaborating” with the U.S. government—which does not have
diplomatic relations with Iran—by writing for websites that are funded by it.
The Iranian government
actively works to block citizens from accessing news and content from
U.S.-funded sources.
In his defense, Marzban
argued that he didn’t know that a project he had written satirical content for
had received funding from the U.S. government.
“One of the main
accusations against Keyomars… was that he worked with [Washington-based] Freedom House, which
is a human rights organization,” said the source who asked not to be
identified. “That’s because for a time, he published his heartfelt writings on
a satirical website [separate from Freedom House’s website] that, according to
the authorities, was funded by the U.S. Treasury.”
The source added:
“According to his lawyer, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, Keyomars… never knew that
the website that he and many others were writing for was funded by the U.S. He
was hoping that by stating this fact in the Appeals Court, he would be cleared
of this charge. But unfortunately, the Appeals Court convened without his
presence or his lawyer and now his family is very worried about the verdict
that is due to be issued to his lawyer next week.”
The satirist’s mother
recently wrote on her Instagram page that her son’s writings were not
politically motivated.
“In his public posts on
Facebook and Instagram, my son, Keyomars Marzban, repeatedly declared that he
is not a political person; ‘I’m a writer,’ he said,” Soheila Mahernia wrote on October 9, 2019.
“Keyomars has published
three books that are available to the public in Iran,” she added. “All three
books that are about his childhood memories contain pure feelings of love and
affection. Ninety percent of his writings in domestic and foreign media have
been about the same things from his childhood, love and affection.”
Marzban’s mother added
that her son was not expecting to be persecuted upon returning to Iran: “Like
all of us, from time to time he criticized social conditions with his humorous
but loving commentary via domestic and foreign media.
His biggest mistake was
that because of his love and deep feelings for his country, he threw himself into
the fire by returning to Iran. He never imagined that he was going to be
imprisoned and sentenced to 23 years behind bars simply for his satire and
cultural and literary work.”
Marzban was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’
Intelligence Organization on August 26, 2018, about a year after he had
returned to Iran to visit his ailing grandmother.
He had been living in
Malaysia since 2009, during which time he had published online commentaries
regarding Iran’s mass street protests against that year’s disputed presidential
election.
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