An Iranian court has sentenced Sadegh Zibakalam to 18 months in prison. The prominent political analyst is accused of “spreading lies and propaganda against the Islamic Republic” in an interview he gave to DW.
The Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran jailed Sadegh Zibakalam on Tuesday, citing critical comments he made during an “interview with a Persian-language foreign medium.”
The decision came after the professor of political science at the University of Tehran gave an interview to Deutsche Welle’s Persian program in January, in which he spoke about recent unrest in Iran.
The court accused him of spreading “false information” and “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”
The academic has also been banned from giving public speeches, publishing articles, giving interviews, and being active on social networks and on the Internet.
DW monitoring the case
Speaking to DW by phone immediately after the ruling, Zibakalam said he planned to appeal the verdict. He quoted the text as saying Deutsche Welle was a “counter-revolutionary and hostile website.”
DW Director Peter Limbourg said “classifying the media as hostile is symptomatic of dictatorships, like the regime in Tehran.”
“They seem to be aware of their own weakness to be casting such verdicts. We will monitor the case of Prof. Zibakalam closely and support him.”
Under Article 500 of Iran’s criminal code, such propaganda-related offenses carry a sentence of between three and 12 months. The Revolutionary Court delivered a much harsher verdict in Zibakalam’s case because he is considered a “repeat offender” — he was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2014 for the same charge but the sentence was subsequently downgraded to a fine.
In his interview with DW in January, Zibakalam commented on the “disappointment of the demonstrators in the entire system apparatus” and said that “if there were a referendum on the political system in Iran now, 70 percent of the people would say no to an Islamic Republic.”
Sadegh Zibakalam studied political science at the University of Bradford. He is the author of several bestselling books, including How Did We Become What We Are? and An Introduction to Islamic Revolution.
For more read the full of article at The DW
