Verdict due on British-Iranian woman arrested at Tehran sports stadium
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Version 0 of 1. A British-Iranian woman detained in Iran for trying to watch a volleyball game will learn on Saturday whether she has been found guilty of propaganda against the regime. Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, faces up to a year in a notorious Tehran prison if convicted by Iran’s revolutionary court. Ghavami has been detained for 126 days – including 41 in solitary confinement – after being arrested outside the Azadi stadium in Tehran where she was trying to watch a men’s volleyball match, which put her in breach of the Islamic republic’s ban on women attending big sporting events. Her London-based brother, Iman, 28, told the Guardian on Friday that his sister was scared and frustrated by her detention in Tehran, which has drawn condemnation from the British foreign secretary Philip Hammond and human rights groups. “We are relieved that [the verdict] is happening but she’s gone through so much for not breaking a single law. Everyone knows she’s innocent. What she has been through already is a huge punishment,” he said. Ghavami, a law graduate of Soas, University of London, spent 14 days on hunger strike this month in protest at her detention. She broke her fast 30 minutes before the last court hearing on 14 October when her mother, Susan Moshtaghian, 49, from London, brought her fruit. “My parents spoke to her three days ago and she was still scared. She was frustrated as to how it’s taken this long [to get a verdict]. She’s cut off from the outside world so she doesn’t know what’s happening,” said Iman. “She has lost some weight. Her condition wasn’t really good before the court hearing and she got sick for two days because she hadn’t eaten for such a long time.” A petition on the site Change.org started by Iman has amassed more than 704,000 signatories calling for Ghavami’s release. Ghavami was questioned for four hours after being arrested for trying to enter the Azadi stadium on 20 June. She was released but rearrested days later when she tried to collect her belongings from a police station and officers discovered her dual citizenship. She was only told on 23 September that she was formally charged with “propaganda against the regime” – a charge that usually carries a prison term of several years, but in this case is expected to be a maximum of one year upon conviction. The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, defended Ghavami’s detention when questioned on Christiane Amanpour’s CNN show last month. He said Iran did not recognise dual citizenship and added: “The bottom line is our aim for the laws to be respected every step of the way.” Amnesty International’s UK director Kate Allen said: “It’s a disgrace that the Iranian authorities mounted this case against Ghoncheh in the first place and if she’s found guilty it will be an outrage. “Ghoncheh Ghavami is a prisoner of conscience. Instead of persecuting people for peacefully protesting about pervasive discrimination against women in Iran, the authorities should abolish discriminatory laws and issue an assurance that women will be allowed to freely attend all sporting events in the country in future.” |