Watchdog

The brother of Iranian President Hassan Rohani has been sentenced to prison by a court following his trial on charges of corruption.

Hossein Fereidoun, considered to be a close confidant of the president, was sentenced on May 4 to an unspecified prison term, according to Iranian media.

"This person Hossein Fereidoun was found not guilty on some charges, while he was sentenced to prison on other accusations," the official news agency IRNA quoted judiciary official Hamidreza Hosseini as saying.

The semiofficial Mehr and ISNA news agencies also reported the verdict, which can be appealed.

Fereidoun, a top adviser to Rohani, was arrested in 2017 and quickly released on bail following long-running corruption allegations, with the judiciary saying at the time that he was the subject of "multiple investigations."

Conservatives had demanded that Fereidoun be put on trial, accusing him of financial-corruption charges.

Rohani's supporters have suggested that the case against Fereidoun was part of efforts by hard-liners to undermine the Iranian president.

Fereidoun and his brother do not share the same name because Rohani, who is considered a relative moderate within Iran's political system, changed his surname decades ago.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

An Iranian newspaper says one of its reporters was arrested by police earlier this week while covering a May Day protest, during which dozens of activists were detained.

The pro-reform Shargh newspaper said on May 4 that Marzieh Amiri was detained at a demonstration outside the Iranian parliament in Tehran.

The paper said authorities detained some 30 protesting workers, including two workers' leaders, Reza Shahabi and Hassan Saeedi.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency reports that the detainees will be released soon, citing the general prosecutor, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri.

Iran has witnessed protests over the past two years sparked by the country's worsening economic situation.

In 2018, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposed economic sanctions on Iran after pulling out a 2015 nuclear deal that provided Tehran with sanctions relief in return for curbs on its atomic program.

Nationwide protests in 2017 led to 25 deaths.

Based on reporting by AP and Mehr