Durham University student receives 7-year jail term

Another Iranian student has received a lengthy jail term, according to opposition website Jaras.

Iranian PhD student at Durham University, Ehsan Abdoh-Tabrizi has been sentenced to seven years in prison. Tabrizi’s father Hossein Abdoh-Tabrizi told the BBC’s Persian service that his son had been sentenced to two years in prison for “insulting the leader,” three years for taking part in the Ashura protests on 27 December 2009 and finally two years for “having links with foreign” elements.

Tabrizi’s father maintained that his son was innocent, adding that “Ehsan is not a political person and is only a history researcher. He’s been in prison for almost a year now and I don’t [even] think anyone in the judiciary system accepts this sentence."

“Our understanding is that [even] the persecutor and judge don’t believe this crime. Even the initial deputy district attorney did not accept the charges and didn't sign Ehsan’s indictment and the judiciary was then forced into changing the deputy district attorney. It isn’t clear why the body in charge of creating security and peace in the country is instead [busy accusing] the [country’s] most patriotic children of having links [with foreign elements] and conspiracy. I urge authorities to investigate such issues and to disallow this magnitude of injustice.”

Ehsan is currently being held in ward 350 of Iran’s notorious Evin prison along with other political prisoners. He was arrested last year at Imam Khomeini International Airport while visiting Iran during the Christmas holidays. His parents were finally allowed to visit him in prison four months after his arrest.

Prior to his arrest, Abdoh-Tabrizi had not been politically active however many believe that his imprisonment might have been linked to his father's position as the former secretary-general of the Tehran Stock Exchange and manager of the banned reformist newspaper Sarmayeh, a constant critic of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disastrous economic policies.