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Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, who is a co-founder of Iran’s Centre for Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), was sentenced in July last year after being convicted of charges including “membership of an association [the CHRD] seeking the soft overthrow of the government” and “spreading propaganda against the system through interviews with foreign media”.
Told verbally to report to the authorities on Saturday, the organization fears he is at imminent risk of imprisonment as a prisoner of conscience. “Mohammad Ali Dadkhah’s only crime is to have defended the rights of others. He should not even have been on trial in the first place and his sentence should be quashed immediately,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Sending him to prison for nine years would be a further nail in the coffin of freedom of expression and association in Iran, where spurious vague charges are frequently used in an attempt to silence those working to protect human rights.”