Iranian activist Fatemeh Sepehri, an outspoken critic of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been sentenced to a total of 18 years in prison after calling on him to resign.
Asghar Sepehri, Sepehri's brother, wrote on Twitter on February 21 that his sister had informed him during a phone call from prison that the Islamic Revolutionary Court had handed her the sentence.
He said the sentence includes a 10-year sentence for propaganda activities against the Islamic republic, five years for cooperation with hostile governments, two years for insulting the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei, and one year for gathering and conspiring against national security.
It was not immediately clear if the sentences would be served consecutively or concurrently.
Sepehri is one of 14 activists in Iran who have publicly called for Khamenei to step down. She has been arrested and interrogated many times in recent years.
She and the other activists have also called for a new political system within the framework of a new constitution that would secure dignity and equal rights for women.
Criticism of Khamenei, who has the last say on almost every decision in the Islamic republic, is considered a red line in Iran, and his critics often land in prison, where political prisoners are routinely held in solitary confinement and subjected to various forms of torture.
Sepehri was arrested by security forces on September 21, at the beginning of nationwide protests in Iran over the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly violating the country's hijab law.
Since the unrest erupted, lawmakers and security officials have threatened harsher and harsher treatment for protesters and anyone expressing dissent.
Human rights groups say the crackdown has left more than 500 people dead and hundreds more injured. Several people have been executed.