A widely contested decade-and-a-half prison sentence issued to two Iranian students has been upheld by Branch 26 of Tehran Court of Appeal, their lawyer said on Monday.
Amirhossein Moradi and Ali Younesi were sentenced to 16 years in prison each last month. The pair, both ex-astronomy Olympiad students at Sharif University of Technology, were found guilty of so-called "corruption on earth" and "collusion and propaganda against the regime".
Lawyer Mostafa Nili said the Tehran court, part of the Revolutionary Courts system, had rejected their appeal. Under Iranian law they will be required to serve at least 10 years in the absence of a pardon or retrial.
Both Moradi and Younesi are now aged 22. They were violently arrested in April 2020 and tortured, after which both gave a forced confession on camera for state TV that they later disavowed.
Writing on Telegram on Monday, Nili said their next step would be to request a retrial from the Supreme Court. He added that his clients had now been held on the infamous Ward 209 of Evin Prison, which is run by the IRGC, for two years, and hoped they would soon be transferred to the public ward.
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