The Iranian regime sentenced six people to flogging in Iran in three separate cases for what it deems social and political “crimes”.

The state-run Fars News Agency quoted the head of the Judiciary of Marvdasht as saying that four people convicted of making and distributing alcoholic beverages were sentenced to overall 370 lashes in addition to lengthy prison terms. The judiciary official in the southwestern province of Fars claimed that the alcohol had led to the deaths of three people in 2016.

In another case in the city of Qom, near Tehran, a man was sentenced to 74 lashes and one year of prison for what Fars News Agency called, “insulting an environmental agent”.

The state-run news agency said that the man had refused to hand over the turtles and snakes he sold to make a living.

According to a human rights group, the public flogging and prison sentence for a teacher and member of the Isfahan Teachers’ Association was upheld by a court of review in Isfahan, located in the center of Iran.

Hamidreza Rahmati, who is member of the Isfahan Teachers’ Association, was sentenced to 18 months of prison and 74 public lashes on charges of “disrupting public order by carrying out an abnormal act outside the Education Department building”. He was sentenced to another 18 months of prison and a 20 million toman fine (around $600) for “sending messages on social media that encouraged violence”.

The teacher activist was arrested and then released on bail for carrying out a solitary nine day sit-in outside of the Shahreza Education Department last December protesting the widespread arrest of teachers during their nationwide strike.

Before this, 86 people were sentenced to flogging in Iran for protesting the diversion of their local water sources to an IRGC affiliated steel factory in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari.

Source » irannewswire