Morteza Semyari’s Family Say They Will Never be Able to Raise his $600,000 Bail

A source close to Morteza Semyari told International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that after the Revolutionary Courts announced Semyari’s bail at $800,000, his family tried to talk to court authorities before a public announcement of their decision was made, hoping to see the bail amount reduced. Semyari family say they have no hope of being able to raise an amount even remotely close to the set bail amount in order to release Semyari.

Judge Salavati reduced the bail amount from $800,000 to $600,000, but even so, Semyari family say that they will not be able to raise this amount even in several years. Morteza Semyari is a university student without any income and his father is an Army officer who previously fought in Iran-Iraq War for several years. Over the past few days, the family’s efforts to raise the bail have been unsuccessful. Several times they have taken deeds valued at $300,000 to the Courts, but Judge Salavati has not agreed to a reduction of bail amount.

Semyari was sentenced to six years in prison in his initial court. One of his charges is inviting European Parliament members to a meeting with himself. Semyari had said that he would never have a meeting with members of foreign delegations without proper permissions from and required coordination with Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This meeting never took place but the issue caused his heavy sentence. The European Parliament summoned the Iranian Ambassador to Belgium to convey their objection to Semyari’s arrest and his subsequent six-year prison sentence.