Sabah Nasri
UPDATE: (9 January 2009) Sabah Nasri has been released from prison.
(3 November 2008) Sabah Nasri is a Masters student in political science at Tehran University, a member of the writing club and writer for the authorized publication Roojameh (published in Kurdish). He was arrested with Hedayat Ghazali in July 2007 in Sanandaj and was taken to the Central Intelligence Office. In the first week of September 2007, he was taken to Section 209 of Evin Prison. He was then transferred to the Central Prison of Sanandaj in November 2007, only to be taken back to Section 209 of Evin Prison in February 2008. Based on a letter sent by Nasri and Ghazali from prison, they were transferred between prisons seven times.
According to the letter, the charges against them were based on their involvement in a gathering celebrating International Mother Language Day and their work for Roojameh. In their letter, they detail being told during interrogations that their arrests could be reduced and even their prosecution prevented. Despite being told this, the public prosecutor issued a request for a new punishment against both of them. The first meeting in the investigation of Nasri and Ghazali’s files was done without the presence of their lawyer in an open sight court in late May 2008. After four delays, the case finally went to court on 23 August 2008 in the 13th Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, with Judge Sadat presiding.
The charges against Nasri and Ghazali and their subsequent punishments are based on Article 500 in Islamic Penal Code, and the public prosecutor sought the maximum sentence allowed. On 24 August 2008, a two-year prison sentence was handed down to both Nasri and Ghazali. This information was also communicated to their lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht.
Judge Sadat returned the cases of Nasri and Ghazali saying the case is not under the jurisdiction of his branch. Though the case would be repeatedly sent to court, he would not show up. Despite this, the cases of Nasri and Ghazali took place in that same Branch.
