Iranian student activist handed six-year prison term

Morteza Samiari

Iranian authorities have sentenced student activist, Morteza Samiari to six years imprisonment after six weeks in Evin Prison. The executive member of Iran’s national student union was arrested in connection with an open and official invitation to meet with representatives of a European Parliamentary Committee in Tehran.

In his trial, Samiari maintained that he had told the Committee he would meet with them if the meeting is coordinated by the Foreign Ministry.

The member of student organization Unity Consolidation Bureau has been charged with “activities against national security and propaganda against the system” and handed a six-year prison term for them.

Student activists have been a focused target of government retaliation to election protests in the past eight months and numerous members of student organizations have been handed heavy jail terms.

In recent days, reformist websites reported the arrest of seven University of Tehran medical students whose fates remain unknown. In other major cities at least two students connected with opposition leader MirHosein Mousavi’s youth organizations were also arrested in the last week.