The women’s rights activist court has confirmed a sentence of over 60 years in prison for 11 women’s rights activists.
Zahra Dadrass, one of the 11 women’s rights activists in Gilan who has been sentenced to over 9 years in prison in total, reacted to the more than 60-year sentence for these activists, writing that when the sentence was communicated to them on March 26, 2024, no one could believe the numbers placed in front of our names.
She added that all of us were sentenced to discretionary imprisonment, more than sixty years of definitive prison sentences for individuals whose biggest crime was being feminists. Otherwise, how could people without any criminal convictions, no record of misconduct, not even a warning, deserve such a sentence?
She referred to the first court session on February 29, 2024, and mentioned that the judge intended to address the case of all 12 individuals in one session and then said that for some, a case should not have been formed at all, and a warning should have sufficed. The judge had then promised to give a favorable verdict, and we wouldn’t need to appeal.
She wrote that we kept telling ourselves, what did we do? We didn’t kill anyone, we didn’t set anything on fire, we didn’t even throw stones. We are just protesters.
She wrote about the appeal court, stating that the case was referred to the 11th branch of the appeal court on May 1, and the documents were sent to this branch on May 3. The judge of the appeal branch confirmed the initial court’s verdict verbatim on May 7, within 4 days, one of which was a Friday, without holding a court session. Although this verdict was communicated to my lawyer in person, I have not yet received a text message about it.
Yesterday, on May 29, it was reported that 11 women’s rights activists in Gilan were sentenced to a total of 60 years in prison.