Persons charged with helping anti-revolutionaries
According to Iran's Islamic Penal Code, the following are among the penalties for "crimes against internal and external security of the country":
Article 498: Anyone ... who forms or administers a faction, association or branch of an association of more than two people in or outside the country ... with the intention of disrupting the country's security ... shall be sentenced to a term of two to ten years in prison.
Article 499: Anyone who enters into membership with one of the factions or associations or the branches of associations mentioned in Article 498 above shall be sentenced to an imprisonment of three to five years unless it is proved that the perpetrator has had no knowledge about the intentions of said group.
Article 500: Anyone who ... [engages in] propaganda ... against the system of [Iran] or in favour of groups and organizations opposed to the system shall be sentenced to an imprisonment of three months to one full year (Iran 22 May 1996).
Examples of sentences handed down in 2005 for such crimes include 18 months imprisonment and 76 lashes for "propagating against the regime" and "disturbing public order" (AFP 26 Apr. 2005), "five years in prison for various charges including acting against state security" (Reuters 20 Dec. 2005), and seven years imprisonment for charges "relat[ed] to national security" (AI 27 July 2005).
