Farhad Meysami (L) and Reza Khandan (File)
Prominent rights activists Reza Khandan and Farhad Meysami have been given six-year prison sentences and banned from contributing to media and using social media for two years.
The men’s attorney, Mohammad Moqimi, said Khandan — the husband of lawyer and political prisoner Nasrin Sotoudeh — and Meysami were punished with five-year terms for “assembly” and “collusion” against national security, and one year for “propaganda against the ruling establishment”.
They are also banned for two years from membership in political parties and groups and cannot leave Iran during the period.
Khandan was seized at his home on September 4, three months after his wife Sotoudeh — a political prisoner from 2010 to 2013 — was rearrested over her defense of women who protested Iran’s compulsory hijab law. Khandan was detained over his support of the campaign and other rights activities.
Meysami, a physician and civil rights activist, was arrested on July 31. His “offenses” include keeping dozens of lapel pins with the slogan “I Protest Compulsory Hijab”.
Khandan wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday:
When behind bars in Block 4 of Evin [Prison], I found out that the number of political prisoners is much more than what we had thought. Only in our block, there were 70 political prisoners. Probably [only] 17% of them are known outside the prison.”
