In a continuation of judicial and security crackdowns on participants in nationwide protests, Ali Mousavi, a protester from November 2019, has been detained and transferred to Sheiban Prison in Ahwaz to serve his sentence.
According to reports received by the Karoon Human Rights Organization, this 29-year-old citizen from Ahwaz was first arrested during the November 2019 protests by Iranian security forces. After enduring months of imprisonment and torture in solitary confinement in security detention centers, he was eventually released temporarily on bail pending the conclusion of legal proceedings.
Following his temporary release, Mr. Mousavi was tried by the Iranian judiciary on the charge of “active participation in the 2019 unrest” and was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison. This heavy sentence was later reduced to 6 years of imprisonment after a review and subsequent legal proceedings, and it is now being enforced.
Ali Mousavi is a resident of the Kouy Alavi (Hayy Al-Thawra) area in Ahwaz. He is married and a father of three children, and the enforcement of this lengthy prison sentence will place his family in difficult economic and emotional circumstances. The Kouy Alavi area was one of the main centers of popular protests in November 2019, which faced severe and violent repression from security and law enforcement forces, resulting in the arrest, summons, or heavy prison sentences for dozens of young people from the region.
The Karoon Human Rights Organization, while reminding citizens of their fundamental right to peaceful assembly and protest, considers the issuance and enforcement of such sentences a clear instance of repression of freedom of expression and calls for the annulment of unjust sentences against the November 2019 protesters and their immediate release.
