Iran continues imprisoning its Azerbaijani activists to stifle dissent among its Azerbaijan-populated northern regions.
A criminal court in Tabriz city held hearing into the case of human rights activist Nader Sadeghian on November 1 on charge of “Encouraging and inviting people to acts of violence through cyberspace,” Abbas Lesani’s Instagram page reported.
Sadeghian was detained in summer during a large-scale protest in Tabriz city in support of anti-government protests in Iran’s Arab-populated Khuzestan region over poor living conditions. He was arrested by the Iranian security forces in Tabriz on July 26 and was released from Tabriz Central Prison on َAugust 11 on bail pending trial.
He was handed down four months in jail and four years of suspended prison sentence by the decision of the revolutionary court of Tabriz.
Jaleh Tabrizi, director of the Ark Human Rights Association of Azerbaijan, has said that the trial of Sadeghian in the Revolutionary Court is illegal. He said the activists are currently on trial in two courts – the Revolutionary Court and the Criminal court so that if they are not convicted in one court, they will be convicted in another.
On July 15, people in dozens of towns and cities in Khuzestan province, which has a large ethnic Arab population, held protests for several nights to demand clean water in the region. The protests in Khuzestan and other provinces including Isfahan, Lorestan, Eastern Azerbaijan, Tehran, and Karaj were initially against the clean water shortage in the region but later were expanded to cover larger socio-economic issues such as poverty and environmental and racial problems.
According to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), six protesters were killed and at least 171 were arrested during violent protests in Khuzestan.
