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| Abbas Lisani |
Iran's Supreme Court has rejected a cassation appeal by prominent Turkish minority rights activist Abbas Lisani, upholding a 15-year prison sentence by the Ardabil lower court.
The Supreme Court's decision was announced on July 4th to the activist's lawyer, Mohammad Reza Faghihi.
Lisani was convicted in July 2019 in the Ardabil Revolutionary Court on charges of "inciting the Turkish community in the West Azerbaijan Province," "organizing and running a group called GAMAC, and being a member of it," and "violating the country's security." The court sentenced the political activist to eight years in prison and two years in exile, accusing him of "violating the security of the country." The political activist was acquitted of the first two charges.
Abbas Lisani appealed to the Court of Appeal against the decision of the trial court. In October 2019, the Ardabil Court of Appeals, which heard the civil activist's complaint, increased the prison sentence from 8 to 15 years by adding two charges to the activist's acquittal in the first instance. This time, Lisani appealed to the Supreme Court of Iran.
Judge Atabati, who read out the charges against Abbas Lisani in the first trial, had heard his cassation appeal in the Court of Appeal.
Abbas Lisani has been detained in Ardabil prison since January 2019. Amnesty International's Prisoner of Conscience Lisani has been repeatedly arrested and convicted for his peaceful activism on language and constitutional rights of Turks in Iranian Azerbaijan for over the past 15 years and has spent years in prisons or exiles in cities such as Tabriz, Ahar, Ardabil, Yazd and Shiraz.
For further information read Amnesty International's reports on Abbas Lisani.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=Abbas+Lisani
For further information read Amnesty International's reports on Abbas Lisani.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=Abbas+Lisani