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| Abbas Lisani |
The Ardabil Revolutionary Court has issued a new verdict against prominent Southern Azerbaijani activist Abbas Lisani, who has previously spent extended periods in various prisons across different cities. The court sentenced him to one year of imprisonment.
The former political prisoner, accused of collaborating regularly with “separatist groups abroad and Günaz TV,” also faced charges of “propaganda against the regime” for participating in mass protests in 2011 related to Lake Urmia and for discussing the necessity of a “secular regime” in an article published on websites.
The ruling, issued by Judge Asadpur, head of the first branch of the Ardabil Revolutionary Court, was reported on the Günaz TV and Oyan News websites.
According to the court documents, Abbas Lisani, son of Asad, was identified as a “key member of separatist groups” who called on the people of Ardabil province to organize protests in city squares following the rejection of a proposal concerning Lake Urmia [by the Iranian Parliament] in 2011.
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| The Description of the Verdict Issued by the Ardabil Revolutionary Court |
The ruling alleged that certain sections of Lisani’s article titled A Mirage in the Desert of History contained content deemed propagandistic against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“The defendant, in his article A Mirage in the Desert of History, argued for the necessity of establishing a secular regime and noted that youth are turning away from religion due to 30 years of clerical governance,” the document signed by Judge Asadpur stated.
Abbas Lisani has previously faced imprisonment sentences from various courts in Iran and has been detained multiple times in the Ettelaat detention centers and central prisons of Ardabil, Tabriz, Yazd, and Ahar. Amnesty International had designated him a prisoner of conscience during those years.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Ərdəbil məhkəməsi Abbas Lisanini “sekular rejim” təbliğatında günahlandırır