Parisa Hatami

An Iranian court upheld the prison sentences of three Amir Kabir University students ‎who have been spending more than a year behind bars for allegedly publishing material ‎insulting to Islam in a student publication, convicting them to prison sentences ranging ‎from 22 to 30 months. Meanwhile, different news sources reported heavy pressure from ‎the Ministry of Intelligence on the judiciary to increase the prison sentences of the three ‎students. ‎

The three students, named Majid Tavakkoli, Ahmad Ghassaban, and Ehsan Mansouri, ‎editors of student news bulletins at Amir Kabir University, were arrested last spring after ‎fabricated copies of their bulletins containing insulting material to the supreme leader ‎were published and distributed among university students. ‎

Amir Kabir University students believe that the three students are being punished for ‎student protests during Ahamdinejad’s visit to Amir Kabir University. A few weeks prior ‎to the arrest of the students, in December of 2006, during his visit to the university, ‎Ahamdinejad was met with a group of angry protestors who even set his photograph on ‎fire at the university. ‎

The news of the students’ prison sentences for a total of 78 months is announced after the ‎three students were acquitted by a lower court of the charges of publishing insulting ‎material, insulting holy beliefs, insulting the clergy, and insulting the regime’s high ‎officials, though they were sentenced to four months imprisonment for publishing lies ‎against Basiji and security forces. ‎

Now the judge at branch 44 of the of the appeals court, who has reviewed the cases of ‎these students, has found them guilty of “propagating against the regime” and “insulting ‎the supreme leader.” All three have spent about one year of their prison sentence behind ‎bars already, mostly in solitary confinement. ‎

The prison sentence for the students was issued even though according to the attorney of ‎the students, they have continued to deny the charges throughout the proceedings in ‎lower and appellate courts. ‎

In an open letter addressed to head of judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi, the families of the ‎three students revealed severe physical and psychological tortures imposed on the ‎detained students at Evin’s infamous Ward 209 [under the Ministry of Intelligence’s ‎control]. The families of the students, whose letter last summer was left unanswered, ‎attempted once again last winter to bring about the release of their loved ones. They ‎wrote another letter to the head of judiciary in the final days of 1386, but that letter was ‎left unanswered also. ‎

Now Majid Tavakkoli, Ahmad Ghassaban, and Ehsan Mansouri are sentenced to 6.5 ‎years behind bars in total, though no evidence has been provided to prove their charges ‎other than forced onfessions extracted from them in solitary confinment. ‎