Human rights defender Reza Abbasi was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment in mid-October: six months for “insulting the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and another six months for “propaganda against the system”. He has been held in Zenjan Central Prison since his arrest in June, and has spent at least two months in solitary confinement. The Zenjan office of the Ministry of Intelligence has reportedly been harassing Reza Abbasi’s family: this has included repeatedly summoning his elderly parents for interrogation and ordering them not to tell anyone about their son’s situation.
