Iran sentences Mahsa Amini's uncle to five years in prison

Shafaq News / Iranian authorities have issued a five-year prison sentence against Safa Aeli, the uncle of Iranian-Kurdish Mahsa Amini, who passed away at the age of 22 in mid-September 2022 in the custody of Tehran's morality police for allegedly violating the country's strict headscarf law that forces women to cover their hair and entire body.

The court leveled several accusations against Aeli, including expressing anti-government views during the 2022 protests in response to Amini's death, which swept across the country and quickly escalated into calls to overthrow Iran's clerical rulers.

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee reported that the Revolutionary Court handed down a verdict of five years and four months imprisonment in Aeli's hometown in Saqez, northwest of the country.

According to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), lawyer Saleh Nikbakht mentioned that part of the sentence had been suspended. The family will have to serve three years and six months in prison on charges of participating in protests that undermined domestic security, disseminating anti-government propaganda, and insulting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.