Student Protestors on Trial

hrw.org – On Monday, July 10, Hasti Amiri and Zia Nabavi, students and activists from Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University, appeared before Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, according to United Students Union Telegram channel, a news channel related to the Islamic student association in Iran.

Amiri and Nabavi are being charged with “propaganda against the state,” according to Harasswatch, based on their participation in a March 7 protest. The protest, which involved a gathering at Allameh University, came in response to what is alleged to be widespread poisoning of students at schools. Iran’s reformist Etemad news agency reported on March 1 that over the past three months, hundreds of schoolgirls had been poisoned in at least 58 schools in 10 provinces across the country. The authorities have failed to credibly investigate the alleged poisoning, causing significant stress among parents.

Nabavi, a former member of Students’ Islamic Association at Babol Noshirvani University, previously served nine years in prison due to his peaceful activism, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). HRANA reported that Nabavi was arrested in June 2009, then sentenced to a 10-year prison term in exile.

Amiri was previously arrested on July 31, 2022, and detained in Evin Prison in Tehran for six months, according to HRANA. She was released on February 7, after the government issued an amnesty. Iranian authorities have recently been summoning, arresting, and sentencing activists and journalists, including those who were released from detention and granted amnesty only months ago.