Cartoon 112: Facebook Users Get Five to Seven Years in Prison

An appeals court in Tehran has sentenced six individuals to prison terms ranging from five to seven years for postings on their Facebook pages. Two additional individuals are facing as of yet unknown terms for their activities on the social networking site.

These are the final verdicts for a group of eight Facebook users arrested in 2014, and represent a reduction from sentences that originally ranged as high as 20 years for their posting of peaceful online content. The sentences indicate a continuation of an assault on freedom of speech in Iran that has increasingly focused on social media. This is cartoonist Touka Neyestani’s take on the issue.