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Iranian cartoonist jailed in notorious Evin Prison released following appeal
(UPI) —Â Iranian cartoonist and activist Atena Farghadani, jailed in Iran’s infamous Evin prison to serve a six-year sentence over her work, had her sentence reduced on appeal to eight months and was released, according to her lawyer and human rights organizations and advocates.
Farghadani received a five-year sentence for insulting religious sanctities and a one-year sentence for spreading propaganda against the state in June, one month after she was detained in what the Center for Human Rights in Iran described as an escalating crack down on women’s rights and dissent in the Middle Eastern Country.
A statement on an Instagram account associated with Farghadani states that her charge of insulting religious sanctities was acquitted while her second charge over her publication of a cartoon entitled Class Inequality was reduced from a year to eight months.
“We are deeply relieved by Atena Farghadani’s release and hope she receives the care and support she needs after enduring such unjust and brutal imprisonment,” Julie Trébault, executive director of Artists at Risk Connection, an international artistic freedom advocacy organization, said in a statement.
Considered one of the world’s most repressive countries, Iran has seemingly increased its crackdown on dissent in recent years as the ruling regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been confronted by protests, including the widespread women-led movement that followed the police-involved killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Amnesty international states the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly were among those further suppressed by the government following the uprising.
Farghadani was arrested by security forces on April 13. A statement from several expression of freedom advocacy organizations, including ARC and PEN America, issued following her arrest state she was detained while trying to post her artwork on a wall hear Khamenei’s compound in the capital Tehran.
Her detention followed reports that she was beaten and fell unconscious after being struck in the head.
Farghadani was previously detained in June 2023 over posting a sartorial cartoon to her Instagram page.
In August 2014, she was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for spreading propaganda — a sentence that was reduced to 18 months by an appeals court that April following public opposition.