Daughter of Former Iranian President Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

A court in Iran has sentenced the daughter of former President Faezah Hashemi Rafsanjani to five years in prison for supporting recent mass protests in the country, according to her lawyer Neda Shams.

“Ms. Faezah Hashemi has been temporarily sentenced to five years in prison based on the charges brought against her in the latest case... It is inappropriate to comment on the verdict considering its ambiguity,” Shams wrote on her Twitter account, as reported by РИА Новости.

The Iranian judicial system allows for a possibility of appeal against a “temporary verdict.” The lawyer added that her client remains in custody and that several additional cases have been initiated against her.

Faezah Hashemi Rafsanjani is a reformist politician and former member of parliament. She was a supporter of the Iranian opposition and has participated numerous times in anti-government protests.

Notably, she was first arrested in 2009 while supporting one of the reformist candidates, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, during the presidential elections. She has since been sentenced twice to six months in prison and banned from political activity for five years.

Faezah has been re-arrested on September 27, 2022, for supporting protests related to the death of a girl detained by the police.