A Tehran court sentenced cartoonist Atena Farghadani to six years in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and “insulting the sacred” for trying to paste a poster critical of the regime on the streets, amid increasing repression in the country.
“My client Atena Farghadani was sentenced by the 26th chamber of the Revolutionary Court to five years in prison for insulting the sacred and to one year in prison for propaganda against the system,” said the artist’s lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, on Monday night (10) on social network X.
“Under the pretext of multiple crimes, this theater court imposed the most severe punishment on the two aforementioned charges,” the jurist added.
Farghadani was arrested on April 13 this year, when she tried to paste a drawing critical of the regime on a wall near the headquarters of the country’s presidency and the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in central Tehran, Moghimi reported.
Since then, she has been detained in Qarchak prison in the northern city of Varamin.
The artist has had several problems with Iranian authorities over the years. In 2015, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison for collusion against national security over a caricature that portrayed members of Parliament as animals that she posted on Facebook, a sentence that was reduced to 18 months on appeal.
In June 2023, she was arrested again after publishing a satirical caricature on social media.
Iran has increased its crackdown on artists, women without the Islamic veil and critics of the Islamic Republic’s policies amid public discontent over the poor economic situation and social tensions.
In May, filmmaker Mohamad Rasoulof fled the country after being sentenced to eight years in prison, lashings and confiscation of his assets for his films.
In a high-profile case, a revolutionary court sentenced rapper Tomaj Salehi to death for sedition, anti-system propaganda and inciting riots for supporting protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested and killed for allegedly not wearing a veil. appropriately.
Last week, the Iranian judiciary arrested and charged publisher Hossein Shanbehzadeh with spying for Israel after he responded with a period to a message from Khamenei on the X social network.