Shiva Nazar Ahari’s Four Year Sentence Is Final, Says Lawyer

While various media have published news of an appeals court’s ruling of four years in prison and 74 lashes for human rights activist Shiva Nazar Ahari, her lawyer, Mohammad Sharif has not yet been served with the ruling.  “I have not yet been officially served with the verdict, and unfortunately, the news was publicized in the media without my knowledge.  I learned about the ruling through the press, too,” he said.

Kaleme website reported that in its ruling, Branch 36 of Tehran Appeals Courts acquitted Shiva Nazar Ahari from her charges of “assembly and collusion against the regime,” reducing her sentence to four years in prison and also changed her exile location from the township of Izeh to one of the prisons in Karaj.

Shiva Nazar Ahari, a human rights activist and university student who has been banned from continuing her education, was temporarily released from prison on bail of $500,000 on 12 September 2010.  In her lower court on 4 September 2010, she had been sentenced to six years in prison, exile to township of Izeh, and 74 lashes.

Nazar Ahari, 26, was twice arrested after the 2009 Iranian presidential election.  She was first arrested by security forces on 14 June 2009 in her office.  She was released on 13 October 2009 on bail of $200,000.  But after Ayatollah Montazeri passed away, along with several others who intended to attend the Grand Ayatollah’s funeral ceremonies, Shiva Nazar Ahari was arrested again on 19 December 2009 on her way to Qom.

Currently Shiva Nazar Ahari remains free on bail, awaiting her prison re-call.