Political journalist Hamed Aynehvand has been sentenced to six years in prison without the presence of his lawyer on the basis of charges brought by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC), the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.
Aynehvand, who was arrested after criticizing state policies in his writings, was convicted without due process or a chance to present his defense because the court wouldn’t allow him to choose his own lawyer, telling him to instead pick one from a list approved by the judiciary.
On December 25, 2018, attorney Hossein Bayat told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that Aynehvand had been sentenced to six years in prison by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran presided by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “assembly and collusion against national security.” The sentence would be appealed, Bayat added.
“Mr. Bayat was lawfully representing Hamed’s case but Judge Moghiseh rejected him because he is not on the list of lawyers trusted by the head of the judiciary and therefore the trial took place in the absence of his lawyer and without presenting a defense,” a friend of Aynehvand told CHRI on January 2, 2019.
“He was in solitary confinement for a month and a half and questioned almost every day but the interrogators did not find anything against him except his published articles, which were presented by the IRGC to Judge Moghiseh who accepted all of them as evidence,” added the source who requested anonymity.
https://iranhumanrights.org/2019/01/iranian-journalist-sentenced-to-six-years-in-prison-without-lawyer/
