15 seconds ago 2009-12-04T06:20:03-08:00
TEHRAN (AFP) – A court has sentenced a student activist who was charged with joining protests after Iran's disputed presidential election to eight years in jail, a reformist website reported on Saturday, quoting his wife.
"Two years of this sentence are for another conviction for acting against national security, and the rest relates to protests after the election," Abdollah Momeni's wife, whose first name was not given, told the Mowjcamp website which backs opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.
She did not elaborate on her husband's earlier conviction, but said that he did not take part in "any gathering" during the post-election protest in June.
Saturday's report comes two weeks after London newspaper The Times reported that Hossein Rassam, an Iranian employee of the British embassy, was jailed for four years after being found guilty of fomenting post-election violence.
In early October, the judiciary said that three people arrested after the unrest had been condemned to death, despite a global outcry over the mass trials of people who claimed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election was rigged.
Deadly street protests broke out in Iran after the election.
About 4,000 people were arrested, and 140 of them, including senior reformers and journalists, have been put on trial charged with seeking a "soft" overthrow of the regime and with inciting protests.
Under Iranian law, convicts may appeal their sentences, which must be upheld by both the appeals court and the supreme court before they are carried out.
