A three-year prison term has been handed down to Ali Khamenei’s niece, who is also the current Supreme Leader of Iran.
An vocal opponent of the Islamic Republic, Farideh Moradkhani, was detained in November after she announced her support for the ongoing anti-regime protests that are taking place across Iran.
According to a tweet posted by Moradkhani’s attorney, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, she even demanded that relations between the world community and Tehran be severed.
Aghasi further stated that his client, Moradkhani, was first sentenced to 15 years in prison, but that Moradkhani’s sentence was later reduced as a result of an appeal.
In addition to this, he mentioned that the vocal critic was prosecuted by Iran’s Special Clerical Court, which is an independent organization from the country’s judicial system that is entrusted with prosecuting clerics and only answers to the supreme leader.
Because Moradkhani is not a cleric, according to her attorney, the court does not have the authority to hear her case because it does not fall under its jurisdiction.
In addition, he did not disclose the accusations that were made against his client, and the relevant authorities have not made any statements regarding the matter as of yet.
Due to the fact that Moradkhani has been critical of the administration, he has been detained twice, once earlier this year and once in 2018.
This past week, Moradkhani’s mother, Badri Hosseini Khamenei, who is also the sister of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, voiced her opposition to her brother’s dictatorship and urged members of the military to join the demonstrators before “it’s too late.”
According to reports, she articulated her thoughts in a letter that was distributed by her son, who lives in France.
According to what was written in the letter, “Ali Khamenei’s Revolutionary Guards and mercenaries should lay down their arms as quickly as possible and join the people before it is too late.”
“As a human duty, I fulfilled many times the obligation to bring the voice of the people to the attention of my brother Ali Khamenei many years ago. She went on to say, “However, after I realized that he did not listen and continued the way of [former Supreme Leader Ruhollah] Khomeini in oppressing and killing innocent people, I severed my ties with him.”
Iran has been rocked by demonstrations since the 16th of September, when an Iranian Kurdish lady named Mahsa Amini, who was 22 years old, passed away shortly after being detained by morality police in Tehran.
The rights organization Iran Human Rights, which has its headquarters in Oslo, estimates that at least 458 individuals, including 63 children and 29 women, have been killed by security forces as a result of the protests.
