Citizen of Turkmenistan to 21 years in prison in Iran

Persian2English – Chari Mohammad Moradof, a citizen of Turkmenistan is sentenced to a definitive 21 years in prison in Iran, according to Kaleme. One of his main charges is taking a few photos and recording some videos of the post-election protests.

He and other foreign prisoners are held in Evin prison and their court proceedings were illegally conducted in secret. Out of all the foreign prisoners, the Iranian authorities and most media have only focused on the American [hikers].

A few days ago, two Americans, who were arrested in Iran, charged with espionage, and sentenced to eight years in prison, were permanently released. Their situation was repeatedly considered by both the western and Iranian media.

According to the reports received by Kaleme, Chari Mohammad Moradof is among the people arrested during the incidents following the 2009 Iranian Presidential election.

He and his fiancée had witnessed people protesting in one of the streets in Tehran and, from inside the bus they were on, like many other people, began to take photos and record videos. After his arrest, Ministry of Intelligence agents used the photos and videos as a pretext to sentence Chari Mohammad Moradof to ten years in prison on the charges of “Espionage” and “Propaganda against the regime”.

Chari Mohammad Moradof was also sentenced to an additional ten years in prison on the charge of “Collaboration with a Turkmen businessman”, whom he worked as a translator for only a few days. Eventually his prison sentence reached a total of 21 years.

He has been held in the general ward 350 of Evin prison for the past 26 months without a single day of furlough. His efforts to restore his trial and the efforts made by the embassy of Turkmenistan have proven fruitless.

Chari Mohammad Moradof was born in 1976 and is a political science graduate from the University of Tehran. He was working as a translator in Iran. At the time of his arrest, he was an Master’s student of Diplomacy and International Organizations at the College of International Relations of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He studied under a scholarship from the Turkmenistan Ministry of Science and the Iranian Ministry of Science. He has been writing his thesis throughout his detention.

Translation by Karma Yogi