A student at the University of Tehran was arrested by the Iranian regime’s intelligence forces on Sunday, July 28, and taken to the notorious Evin Prison to begin her sentence for peaceful activism during last year’s protests.
Leila Hosseinzadeh, an anthropology student, had her sentence of two and a half years in prison and a two-year foreign travel ban upheld by the Tehran Province Appeals Court on June 24.
Hosseinzadeh, who served as the secretary of Tehran University students’ central council, was arrested during the nationwide uprisings in 2018 but was released on bail.
She was previously sentenced to six years in prison and a two-year ban on leaving the country by Branch 26 of the Court of Tehran on March 7, 2018.
Her trial began on October 22, 2018, and her revision hearing was held on May 14. Then, on Monday, June 24, Branch 36 of Tehran Appeals Court told Hosseinzadeh that she was sentenced to 30 months in prison on the charge of “association and collusion against national security” and another year for “propaganda against the state”. She is also prohibited from leaving the country for two years after her prison sentence ends.
There were a particularly high number of students arrested and prosecuted during the December 2017/January 2018 protests; something that even Iranian regime officials are admitting.
On July 10, 2018, Parvaneh Salahshouri, a Member of Parliament, told the state-funded Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA): “A list has been put together of the students detained in the December 2017 incidents and they number more than 150. So, we’re not talking about just 55 or 90 students. Unfortunately, the issue of student detentions is much more extensive.”
Now, while this does suggest that young Iranian people, who have known nothing except for the regime, are politically active and want the regime gone, which is true, it’s important to remember that the regime also went around universities as the protest began and locked up students who hadn’t even been involved. This is because they see young people as a threat to their regime.
Salahshouri said at the time that 17 students had already been sentenced to prison terms.
She said: “The Intelligence Ministry is involved in some of the cases against these students and therefore the government and the ministry itself should explain what’s going on here.”
The Iranian regime’s Intelligence Ministry, headed by Mahmoud Alavi, is operated under regime’s President Hassan Rouhani. The Ministry spends a lot of time cracking down on the Iranian people and any potential activism.