Iranwire – Roozbeh Piri, a translator and civil rights activist in Tabriz, has been fined for publishing a post on his Instagram page about the physical consequences of his brother’s beating and torture by the Basij.
According to reports received by IranWire, Branch 103 of the Criminal Court of Tabriz, headed by Judge Mikaeil Watankhah, sentenced Piri to a fine of five million tomans ($227) for “spreading lies in cyberspace.”
The court hearing took place on Wednesday, March 12 in the presence of a lawyer for the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization.
Piri had published a post on his Instagram page on March 2 about the airway damage and kidney failure his brother, Yashar Piri, had suffered after being beaten by Basij forces in an IRGC intelligence detention center.
Yashar had been arrested on February 21 on World Mother Language Day for taking part in the Turkish Book Day campaign and distributing books to citizens of Tabriz. He was only released from prison after paying a fifty-million-toman ($2,300) bail. From there, he went straight to Imam Reza Hospital in Tabriz due to the severity of the beating.