Zahra Safaei, Parastoo Moeini, Mohammad Masoud Moeini, and Kamran Rezaeifar, four political defendants, were each sentenced to five years of imprisonment by the Tehran Revolutionary Court. Another defendant in this case, Teymour Rezaian, was fined 50 million tomans (approximately $1,000). Among these individuals, Zahra, Parastoo, and Mohammad Masoud are members of the same family.
According to the verdict issued by Iman Afshari, the head of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, which was communicated to the defendants on November 26, they have been convicted of “assembly and conspiracy to commit crimes against national security.” Their court session was held on November 18.
Iman Afshari used the content of their private conversations and activities on social media as evidence to substantiate these charges and claimed in the issued verdict that their cooperation and organizational connections with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (PMOI/MEK) focused on undermining national security and participating in opposition propaganda against the regime.
The court cited various pieces of evidence to support these allegations, including “reports from the intelligence forces of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as the case officer, the inferences of the interrogator during the interrogation phase, and the judicial conscience.”
These individuals were arrested by the intelligence forces of the Revolutionary Guards on September 13, on the eve of the first anniversary of the murder of Mahsa Amini. On October 11, after the end of interrogations, they were transferred from the IRGC detention center to Evin Prison.
During their arrest, authorities conducted searches of their homes and confiscated personal belongings such as laptops and mobile phones.
Zahra Safaei (Parastoo and Mohammad Masoud’s mother) was subjected to severe humiliation and derogation by the interrogators during the interrogation period, and the authorities had also connected her daughter, Parastoo, to a lie detector during the interrogations. They put pressure on them and other co-defendants to make confessions against each other.
Zahra Safaei is currently held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, while her son, Masoud Moeini, along with Kamran Rezaeifar, another defendant in this case, are imprisoned in Ward 4 of Evin Prison. Parastoo Moeini, the daughter of Zahra Safaei, was released from prison some time ago, along with Teymour Rezaian, another defendant in this case, after depositing bail until the end of the judicial proceedings.
These individuals have previously been detained and endured imprisonment due to their political activities and support for the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization of Iran.
Parastoo Moeini was a student of electrical engineering at the International University of Qazvin and was expelled from the university after her release from prison in 2022.
