Reporters Without Borders condemns imprisonment of Iranian journalist

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned a decision made by an appeal court in Iran to uphold a 10-year jail sentence given to a local journalist and human rights activist, Narges Mohammadi, Agence France-Presse has reported. According to the rights group, the prison sentence was decreed in April at the conclusion of a trial which, it says, was marked by irregularities.

Under a law adopted in 2015, Mohammadi will only serve 10 years, even though she was actually sentenced to 16 years in total. She was found guilty of forming and managing an illegal group which pressed for an end to capital punishment.

RSF said that her lawyers received the verdict while 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate and colleague Shirin Ebadi, who founded the Centre for Human Rights Defenders in Iran, was meeting with Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo in the French capital.

“I condemn this sentence imposed by the Iranian judicial system,” said Ebadi. “Narges’ only crime is to be a human rights defender in a country that flouts these rights.”