The lawyer for the family of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman whose death while in police custody sparked months of nationwide unrest, is due to appear in Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court on August 29 just weeks ahead of the first anniversary of the tragedy.
The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that Saleh Nikbakht has been charged with propaganda against the system, for his media interviews and criticism of official findings on the cause of Mahsa Amini's death, which authorities blamed on health issues while the family and their supporters have rejected saying witnesses saw her being beaten when arrested.
In an interview with the Faraz website in January, Nikbakht said that "incomplete investigations had been carried out without [the family's] presence or participation as the complainant."
Beyond the dispute over Amini's death, the lawyer's comments on a range of issues, from women's rights to motorcycle driving licenses to the treatment of Afghan migrants, were cited as evidence of his alleged propaganda activities.
Amini was detained by the morality police while visiting Tehran in September 2022 because she was allegedly wearing a head scarf, or hijab, improperly. She died on September 16 after being moved to a hospital.
Nikbakht called on investigators to study the two-hour period between Amini's arrest and her transfer to the Morality Police Center instead of pushing him and her family to accept the "late arrival and failure" of medical staff as a major factor contributing to her death.
Amini's death prompted thousands of Iranians to take to the streets nationwide to demand more freedoms and women's rights. The widespread unrest, which continues, represents the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.
The government, fearing a flare-up in protests next month on the anniversary of Amini's death, has ramped up its crackdown against activists and families of those killed in the protests.
In a statement released on August 21, Amnesty International detailed the situation of 36 families from 10 provinces in Iran who have suffered human rights abuses in recent months at the hands of Iranian law enforcement.
Thirty-three of the cases involved families who had loved ones killed by security forces during the protests, two that lost a relative who was executed arbitrarily, and one family of a torture survivor who took their own life after being released from detention.
The August 16 arrest of 12 women's rights activists who are accused of planning events ahead of the anniversary of Amini's death have intensified concerns that officials will stop at nothing to try and quell any unrest.
Iranian officials have attributed the protests to Western instigation and have pledged a more aggressive crackdown. Over 500 individuals have lost their lives since the start of the protests, which also led to the arrests of thousands, including demonstrators, journalists, lawyers, activists, and digital rights defenders.