Iranian Ex-Bodybuilding Champion Handed New Prison Sentence

An Iranian court has sentenced former bodybuilding champion Khaled Pirzadeh to five years and eight months imprisonment on charges of "gathering and collusion" and "propaganda against the system."

The human rights network HRANA reported that Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court acquitted Pirzadeh of the charges of "spreading lies" and "acquiring illegal wealth." 

If the sentence is upheld on appeal and Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code is enforced, he would serve the most severe single sentence, which in his case is five years’ imprisonment.

Pirzadeh is incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin prison.

Earlier this month, he was reportedly hospitalized for several days due to "convulsions," "muscle cramps" and "chest pain," following a nine-day hunger strike.

Intelligence agents apprehended Pirzadeh at the airport in the southwestern city of Ahvaz on September 19 last year without showing an arrest warrant, as he was preparing to travel to Turkey with a valid passport, sources told IranWire.

He had previously been arrested for his activism in June 2019 and later sentenced to seven years in prison by Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolution Court for "assembly and collusion" and "insulting the leadership."

He resorted to hunger strikes on multiple occasions and, in January 2022, he sewed his right eyelid to protest the conditions of his incarceration.

When Pirzadeh was released from prison in February 2023, he was unable to walk due to a spinal cord injury and an anxiety disorder.