The Iranian-American journalist has been sentenced to 10 years in jail, in keeping with his lawyer.
A courtroom in Iran has sentenced Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years in jail after discovering him responsible of “collaborating with the hostile US authorities”, in keeping with his lawyer.
Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the lawyer of Valizadeh, instructed The Related Press information company that the Tehran Revolutionary Court docket issued the first-instance verdict per week in the past and it may be appealed inside 20 days.
Aghasi added that he has not been capable of meet with Valizadeh for the reason that verdict was issued.
“Valizadeh’s punishment for the crime of working at Radio Farda is ten years imprisonment, a ban on residence in Tehran province and neighbouring provinces, a ban on leaving the nation and membership in political events, and so on. for 2 years,” Aghasi mentioned on X.
Reza Valizadeh is a former journalist for the US-government-funded Voice of America’s Farsi language service and in addition has labored for Radio Farda, an outlet beneath Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that’s overseen by the US Company for World Media.
In August, Valizadeh apparently posted two messages on social media, suggesting he had returned to Iran regardless of Radio Farda being seen by Iran’s authorities as a hostile outlet.
“I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Earlier than that, I had unfinished negotiations with the [Revolutionary Guard’s] intelligence division,” the message learn partly.
“Ultimately I got here again to my nation after 13 years with none safety assure, even a verbal one.”
Aghasi mentioned he was free in the course of the first six months of his arrival after which was arrested.
Earlier arrests
The information of Valizadeh’s sentencing comes after Iranian authorities on Friday arrested main activist Reza Khandan, the husband of the prize-winning rights lawyer and campaigner Nasrin Sotoudeh, their daughter and a lawyer mentioned.
Sotoudeh, is a lawyer who has spent a lot of the previous decade out and in of jail, serving a myriad of sentences in circumstances linked to her activism.
Earlier in November, Kianoosh Sanjari, a former journalist with VOA’s Farsi service, jumped to his loss of life from a constructing in Iran’s capital in protest of the nation’s supreme chief and an persevering with crackdown on dissent within the nation.
Iranian authorities mentioned that Sanjari, 42, had earlier demanded the discharge of 4 prisoners held within the nation and threatened to kill himself in the event that they weren’t launched.
In 2007, a former Radio Farda broadcaster, Parnaz Azima, returned briefly to Iran to go to her ailing mom. Her passport was confiscated on the airport. Authorities banned her from leaving the nation and summoned her repeatedly for questioning by safety forces.
Lastly, she was freed on bail and allowed to go away the nation eight months later.
