Dubai: A court docket in Iran has sentenced Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years in jail after discovering him responsible of collaborating with a hostile authorities, his lawyer stated Saturday.
Reza Valizadeh is a former journalist for the US-government-funded Voice of America’s Farsi language service and likewise has labored for Radio Farda, an outlet beneath Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that’s overseen by the US Company for World Media.
Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the lawyer of Valizadeh, instructed The Related Press that the Tehran Revolutionary Courtroom issued a first-instance verdict for his shopper on a cost of “collaborating with the hostile US authorities”.
Aghasi stated the decision could be appealed inside 20 days because it was delivered to them every week in the past. He added that he hasn’t been capable of meet with Valizadeh because the verdict was issued.
In August, Valizadeh apparently posted two messages suggesting he had returned to Iran regardless of Radio Farda being considered by Iran’s theocracy as a hostile outlet.
“I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Earlier than that, I had unfinished negotiations with the (Revolutionary Guard’s) intelligence division,” the message learn partly. “Finally I got here again to my nation after 13 years with none safety assure, even a verbal one.” Aghasi stated he was free throughout the first six months of his arrival after which was arrested.
Earlier in November, Kianoosh Sanjari, a former journalist with VOA’s Farsi service, jumped to his loss of life from a constructing in Iran’s capital in protest of the nation’s supreme chief and an ongoing crackdown on dissent within the Islamic Republic.
Iranian authorities stated that Sanjari, 42, had earlier demanded the discharge of 4 prisoners held within the nation and threatened to kill himself in the event that they weren’t launched.
In 2007, a former Radio Farda broadcaster, Parnaz Azima, returned briefly to Iran to go to her ailing mom. Her passport was confiscated on the airport. Authorities banned her from leaving the nation and summoned her repeatedly for questioning by safety forces. Lastly, she was freed on bail and allowed to go away the nation eight months later.
Iran has confronted years of unrest amid wider tensions with the West, most lately with the nationwide protests that adopted the 2022 loss of life of Mahsa Amini. Jobs additionally stay scarce and the nation’s rial foreign money continues its yearslong collapse in opposition to the US greenback, additional straining the lives of Iranians.
