Government pressure on lawyers; Mehdi Shakibafer was sentenced to prison for “publishing anti-regime ads and insulting Khamenei”.

Mehdi Shakibafar, a lawyer and member of the Central Province Bar Association, was sentenced to 22 months in prison by the Ninth Branch of the Court of Appeal for “advertising against the system, publishing lies and insulting the leaders of the Islamic Republic”.

According to Harana, the lawyer had previously been acquitted in a lower court, but his case was reviewed over the prosecutor’s objection and “the said acquittal will make his situation worse”.

The lawyer, who represented human rights cases and defended political defendants, was sentenced to fifteen months and one day in prison for “insulting the leader of the Islamic Republic” and seven months and sixteen days in prison for “propaganda against the regime”. In total, he was sentenced to twenty-two months and seventeen days of hard labor.

The Dodban Lawyers Group also named six other imprisoned justice and human rights lawyers who are in jail on similar charges.

Mohsen Berhani, a lawyer and suspended university professor, was arrested and jailed during the election campaign for the government that succeeded Ebrahim Raisi on charges including “spreading lies with the intent to disturb the public mind.”

Mohsen Burhani was one of the critics of the executions of protesters during the nationwide protests in 1401. Besides criticizing the accusations of “war” and “corruption of the earth” being attributed to the protesters and the death penalty being passed on them, he also protested against the broadcasting of “forced confessions”.

Meanwhile, Amirsalar Davoudi, another lawyer at Evin prison, said in a message stressing the boycott of the government’s “elections,” “I have not and will not participate in these elections, read the appointment.”

Amir Salar Davoudi, Taher Naqvi, Arash Ki Khosravi, Mohammad Najafi, Khosro Ali Kurdi and Mohsen Burhani levelled various charges such as “spreading lies”, “actions against clerical affairs”, “propaganda against the system” and in some cases they were deprived of representation during their sentences.