Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, a prominent Iranian civil rights activist, has been sentenced to seven years in prison and handed "additional punishments" by the Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Court for actions going "against the regime."
Iraee was convicted of the charges of "assembly and collusion against the regime," for which she received a six-year prison sentence, and "propaganda against the regime," for which she was sentenced to one year.
The sentence also includes a two-year ban on leaving the country, a two-year ban on attending political parties and groups, and the confiscation of her mobile phone.
According to an informed source close to Iraee's family, the judge cited a "recurrence of the crime in Golrokh's previous cases" as the reason for the sentence, even though she had no definitive conviction for the charge of assembly and collusion in any of her previous cases. Iraee was once sentenced to three years in prison for an unpublished story she wrote about the practice of stoning.
The same source reported that security and judicial authorities have told Iraei and her family that the only way for her to be released is to write a formal request for amnesty, a move she has steadfastly refused.
In February, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the pardoning of some prisoners as the government faces one of the biggest threats to the Islamic leadership since the revolution in 1979 over anti-government protests triggered by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody for an alleged head-scarf violation.
State media quoted Sadegh Rahimi, the deputy of the judiciary, as saying that in order to be pardoned, the accused must "express regret for their activities and give a written commitment not to repeat those activities."
However, Iraee has refused to express regret or request amnesty, and the judge has withheld granting her temporary release on bail until the end of the legal proceedings.
Iraee was arrested by security forces at her home in Tehran on October 4 and is now being held in the women's ward of Evin Prison.
Her husband, political activist Arash Sadeghi, was sentenced in January to more than five years for his advocacy work during the ongoing protests sparked by Amini's death. He was already in prison serving a 19-year sentence despite being diagnosed with cancer.