Three protesters detained during the November 2019 nationwide protests were sentenced to a total of 40 years of prison yesterday by the Dezful Revolutionary Court in southwestern Iran. According to the Human Rights News Agency, the three Iranian protesters were identified as 23-year-old Ra’ad Hamedani, 19-year-old Qosei Khosraji, and 20-year old Sajad Debat.
Hamedani, was charged with “moharebeh” or waging war against God and sentenced to 20 years of prison for torching a poster of the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and setting fire to a gas station. Khosraji, and Debat, were charged with “moharebeh” as well and sentenced to 10 years of prison for complicity.
The three political prisoners were brutally beaten and forced to confess under duress after arrest.
The three were arrested in the November 2019 nationwide protests by intelligence agents in Shush county, southwestern Iran. After interrogation, they were transferred to the Masjed Soleiman Prison.
Although the three are political prisoners, they are detained in one section with criminals, to increase pressure on them.
Political prisoners are kept alongside dangerous criminals and are regularly beaten and threatened, most times, on orders of prison authorities, by nonpolitical prisoners.
Over a year after the bloody November 2019 protests, many protesters are still detained with heavy prison terms. Two protesters were hanged while at least eight have been sentenced to death.
The Iranian regime has used torture as a form of punishment or to extract “confessions” from prisoners since it took power 41 years ago.
In a September 2 report, Amnesty International shed light on the widespread use of torture including beatings, floggings, electric shocks, stress positions, mock executions, waterboarding, sexual violence, forced administration of chemical substances, and deprivation of medical care against protesters detained during the last round of protests in November 2019.
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