On August 16, an appeals court upheld a decision issued against five human rights defenders charged with “establishing an illegal group” and “propaganda against the state” for attempting to hold the government accountable for its mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis, Mostafa Nili, a human rights lawyer and one of the defendants, tweeted.

Branch 36 of Tehran’s revolutionary court ultimately sentenced Nili, as well as Mehdi Mahmoudian, to four years’ imprisonment, and a two-year ban from practicing law and a two-year ban from using social media, respectively. The court also sentenced Arash Keykhosravi, Mohammad Reza Fahighi, and Maryam Afrafaraz to one year in prison and a one-year ban from practicing law, 6 months in prison, and 95 days in prison, respectively.

Authorities arrested seven human rights defenders on August 14, 2021. Two rights defenders, Leila Heydari and Mohammad Hadi Erfanian, were released without charge after a few hours. Afrafaraz and Faghihi were released on bail on August 29, 2021.

However, authorities continued to hold Keykhosravi and Nili until December 2021. Mahmoudian is currently serving a four-year prison sentence he previously received on politically motivated charges of “propaganda against the state,” and “assembly and collusion to act against national security.” In an open letter, the three of them described rights violations they experienced in detention, including being placed in solitary confinement for over a month and denied access to their lawyers and families.

Before their arrest, all seven rights defenders were preparing to file a complaint against the country’s national task force against Covid-19, which included Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, for its mismanagement of the pandemic response. Articles 170 and 173 of the constitution protect every citizen’s right to complain before a court when regulation of the government conflicts with laws or norms.

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