Prisoner of conscience Soheil Arabi was arraigned with new charges through a video conference by Branch 8 of Shahr-e Rey Courthouse on Wednesday, December 23, 2020.
As a punishment, Mr. Arabi was relocated from the Great Tehran Penitentiary to Rajaishahr Prison on September 18 this year. He was held in solitary confinement for 33 days and subsequently transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison. Finally, on November 8, 2020, he was sent back to Rajaishahr Prison.
At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, December 23, 2020, Soheil Arabi was arraigned with charges in a new case, by Branch 8 of Shahr-e Rey Courthouse. In this interrogation session, Mr. Arabi was accused of “propaganda against the state.”
In a call to his family on October 20, 2020, Soheil Arabi who had just finished his 33 days in solitary confinement, said that he had been transferred to Ward 2A of Evin which is the detention center of the IRGC Intelligence. Upon completion of his interrogations, he was transferred to a solitary cell in Rajaishahr Prison on November 8. Eventually, he was transferred to the general ward of this prison after 9 days.
Soheil Arabi has been detained since November 7, 2013. He has been deprived of furlough throughout this period. On January 21, 2020, he was banished from Evin Prison to the Great Tehran Penitentiary.
As he was serving his sentence of 7 years and six months in the Great Tehran Penitentiary, two new cases were filed against him by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.
Soheil Arabi has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for “insulting religious sanctities, propaganda against the state, and insulting the leader.” He is sentenced to another 2 years in prison and 2 years of exile in Borazjan and 4 million Tomans of fine for “disseminating falsities to disrupt public opinion and propaganda against the state.” He has been sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison for “damaging public properties.” Mr. Arabi is supposed to be released in June 2025.
Mr. Arabi’s mother, Farangis Mazloum, has been sentenced by Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran to 18 months in prison. She has to serve one year of this sentence.
