Iran has sentenced a man detained during a June war with Israel in the southwestern city of Ahvaz to 10 years in prison on charges of collaborating with Israel, the Karun Human Rights Organization reported on Tuesday.
The group said the detainee, Shahham Soleimani, is about 60 years old and is being held in Ward 5 of Sheyban Prison in Ahvaz, where political prisoners are normally held, and is in poor physical condition.
The sentence was issued on Tuesday by Branch 1 of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court under Judge Ehsan Adibi-Mehr, locally referred to by critics as the “judge of death,” according to the report.
Karun said more than 80 young men from Ahvaz were arrested in security raids after the war and transferred to Wards 5, 8 and the prison’s quarantine section, where they faced long interrogations and severe physical and psychological pressure.
It reported that detainees have been handed multi-year sentences. Charges were related to espionage and cooperation with Mossad, propaganda against the Islamic Republic and insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with travel bans and mandatory participation in “reform sessions” run by the domestic enforcement militia the Basij and the Revolutionary Guard.
Last month, Iran executed a man convicted of allegedly spying for Israel’s Mossad, bringing the total number of those executed this year on such charges to 12.
In September, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran said the country had executed 11 individuals on espionage charges this year, with at least nine carried out after Israel's military strike on Iran on June 13.
