Iranian Student Handed Lengthy Prison Sentence On Security Charges

Iranian university student and children's rights activist Samaneh Asghari has been sentenced to 18 years and three months in prison, activists say.

Under the law, Asghari will have to serve one-third of the sentence, six years and three months, handed down by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, according to the Committee for Follow-up on the Status of Detainees.

The committee said the court had rejected her request for bail.

Her lawyer previously said that she has been accused of "gathering and conspiring to commit crimes against national or foreign security, disrupting public order and comfort, inciting violence and instigating people to fight and kill each other with the intention of disrupting the country's security, spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic system, and allowing women to appear in public without wearing the required religious hijab."

She is also accused of being a member of a group that aims to disrupt national security and spread lies.

Asghari, a student at Tehran’s Kharazmi University, has been behind bars since her arrest during nationwide protests on October 11, 2022.

Iran has been swept by protests demanding fundamental economic, social and political reforms since the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police. Amini had been arrested for allegedly wearing a headscarf improperly.

The Iranian authorities have cracked down hard on the women-led protest movement, killing more than 520 people and illegally detaining over 19,000, including many women, rights groups say. After biased trials, the judiciary has handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.