The Revolutionary Court of Tehran has handed down a six-year prison sentence to Atena Farghadani, a cartoonist targeted for her critique of the government.
According to her attorney, Mohammad Moqimi, Farghadani has been behind bars since her arrest on April 13, charged with “insulting sacred values and propagating against the ruling system”. Farghadani received five years for the former and an additional year for the latter. Moqimi blasted the proceedings as a “sham trial” in a post on the X, denouncing the judiciary’s manipulation of charges to secure the harshest possible sentence.
Pen America details the latest of Atena’s ongoing troubles with the Iranian government:
On April 13, Farghadani was attempting to post some of her caricature artwork in public on a wall on Pasteur Street in Tehran, near the compound of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, when she was detained by security agents from the IRGC.
On April 14, 2024 she was transferred to Evin court where she had a hearing on two charges: “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the sacred [the Messiah the twelfth Imam Shia].” According to her lawyer, she is being held in Evin Prison and will be brought to a Revolutionary Court.
From the Iran Human Rights organization’s X/Twitter feed:
Cartoonist Atena Farghadani has been sentenced to six years in prison (five years mandatory if upheld), two months after her arrest outside Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s compound and subsequent torture by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. She was tried at Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges of “insulting the sacred and propaganda against the state,” her lawyer Mohammad Moghimi announced on X. “Atena Farghadani has been targeted for her courageous defiance against the Islamic Republic’s repression,” said CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi. “The international community, especially artistic communities, must demand her immediate release.”
