NCRI- The semi-official news agency ILNA reported on Thursday that Iranian regime has sentenced a cartoonist to 25 lashes for drawing a cartoon of a former member of Iranian regime’s parliament.
Mahmoud Shokraye was put on trial after his drawing depicting the former member of parliament as a soccer player was printed in local newspaper in city of Arak, capital of Iran’s Markazi province.
The rights group, Amnesty International condemned the sentence on Saturday adding that the “brutal sentence, just for drawing a harmless cartoon, sends a chilling message to all Iranians that they cannot freely and peacefully express their views without the fear of facing harsh reprisals from the Iranian authorities.”
Ann Harrison, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Program Director for Amnesty International, said: ” This is yet one more example of the Iranian authorities’ relentless attack on freedom of expression. Flogging is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment for any crime, and as such is prohibited under international law. The Iranian authorities should be working to remove it as a punishment in law instead of sentencing ever more people to lashes.”
