“Happy” case suspects received their verdicts

HRANA News Agency – After reviewing the evidence and the trail of the so called “Happy” case suspects, Judge Heydari sentenced the six defendants to imprisonment between 6 months to 1 year and lashes.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the hearing for so called “Happy” case and investigation on the defendants’ accusations took place on 9 September, 2014 in which Judge Heydari reached verdicts for all six suspects. According to these verdicts, “Reyhaneh Taravati” has received a 1 year imprisonment and other members of this group ( “Sasan Soleymani”, “Neda Motmeni”, “Afshin Sohrabi” , “Bardia Moradi” “Raham Shamekhi” and “Sepideh”) have received 6 months imprisonment and 91 lashes.

These verdicts have been suspended for 3 years and they will serve their sentences only if they are found guilty of another crime in the next three years.

Six Iranian youngsters assisted the production and appeared in a video clip called “Happy” which was based on a song by American singer “Pharrell Williams”. They filmed the clip on a rooftop of a building in Tehran. On 9 May, 2014 the group members were arrested by Tehran Morality Police and a news team from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting produced and aired a Television report of them. In this report, all members’ back shown with their heads down, confessing that they have been deceived.