The verdict to dismissal of activist teacher Mohammad Habibi was upheld by the Appeals Court on April 20, 2020 and his lawyer was informed.
Mohammad Habibi is imprisoned in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. After nearly two years of remaining in detention, the Education Ministry has decided to fire this activist teacher. Throughout this period, experts said Mr. Habibi deserved to enjoy unpaid leave.
Intelligence Ministry agents arrested Mohammad Habibi and a number of other activist teachers and participants in a teachers’ protest gathering on May 10, 2018, and took them to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary.
Mohammad Habibi was transferred to Evin Prison in September 2018. Branch 36 of the Appeals Court of Tehran Province convened on October 24, 2018, and issued its verdict in January 2019, upholding the preliminary verdict.
Mr. Habibi was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on charges of “association and collusion against national security”, to 18 months in prison for “disseminating propaganda against the state”, and to another 18 months and 74 lashes for disrupting the public order. As a complementary punishment, he was also deprived for two years of working with political and social parties and groups and banned from leaving the country.
All sentences combined, the 7.5-year sentence was implemented for Mohammad Habibi.
In a statement, the Teachers’ Trade Union (Tehran) protested the Education Ministry’s decision to buy the services of activist teacher Mohammad Habibi who is presently detained in the Greater Tehran’s Penitentiary. The trade union said such verdicts are worthless and demanded that the authorities stop fabricating cases against activist teachers and immediately release the imprisoned teachers.
