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Iran, December 12, 2018

Iran dissident lawyer gets 6 years in prison

Original source

The Daily Star

Dissident Iranian lawyer Ghasem Sholesaadi has been sentenced to six years in prison, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Sholesaadi was arrested Aug. 18 while taking part in a small protest outside the Iranian Parliament against the barring of candidates from elections.

The conservative-dominated Guardian Council reserves the right to veto any candidates from presidential and parliamentary elections.

"Mr. Sholesaadi has been sentenced to five years of prison for 'assembling and conspiring against national security' by the 15th branch of Tehran's revolutionary court," his lawyer, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, told AFP.

"He also received one further year for 'propagation against the system,'" Aghasi added.

He said another lawyer, Arash Keikhosravi, who was arrested at the same time as Sholesaadi, had received the same sentence.

Both lawyers are currently free on bail and aim to appeal their verdict.

Sholesaadi, a law professor, was a member of parliament for two terms in the 1980s and 1990s before being barred by the Guardian Council.

He has since been an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic and has been arrested several times.