Journalist sentenced to three and a half years in prison and fifty lashes

GVF -- Following a court session held on Saturday 17 April, journalist Mohammad Nourizad was sentenced to three and a half years in prison plus fifty lashes. 

Mohammad Nourizad, a former writer for the radical Keyhan newspaper has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison plus fifty lashes. He has twenty days for appeal.

According to the Kaleme website, the journalist was imprisoned 120 days ago after he wrote three letters critical of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as well as an article criticising the head of the judiciary Sadegh Larijani. He has spent seventy days of his time in prison in solitary confinement. He is currently in a three-person cell in ward 240 of Evin prison.

It should be noted that Nourizad has been fasting for the past 106 days in protest against his illegal detention and his interrogators’ abusive treatment.

Nourizad was found guilty of propagating against the Islamic Republic and tarnishing the 30-year reputation of the Islamic Republic, insulting the Supreme Leader, president and head of the judiciary and Ayatollah Alamolhoda, the leader of Friday prayers in the city of Mashhad and member of the Assembly of Experts.