The Iranian judiciary has handed a two-year jail term to Ghassem Sholeh Saadi, an Iranian professor and former member of Parliament.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that Sholeh Saadi was charged with “insulting the leader.”
Sholeh Saadi’s wife, Fahadej Saadi, reported that her husband has already been sentenced for this charge, and he will appeal the court’s decision to sentence him again based on the same charges.
She reported: “On Monday, when I visited him in jail, he told me that he still suffers from a spinal complication. Despite letters from the coroner to the Tehran Prosecutor indicating that Sholeh Saadi is medically unfit to serve his sentence, he remains in prison."
Sholeh Saadi is a Tehran University professor and former Shiraz MP. He was arrested this March at Tehran airport while arriving from Shiraz.
In an open letter in 2002, he openly criticized Ayatollah Khamenei’s policies and was arrested for 36 days for his critique of the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader.
A few years ago, the same letter became grounds for a one-and-a-half-year prison term handed to him by the judiciary. He was also given another year for having done media interviews.
Sholeh Saadi tried to run in the 2009 presidential election but he was disqualified by the ultra-conservative Guardian Council, which tends to disqualify most reformist candidates.
