Amnesty InternationalMay 13, 2015
Mohammad Ali Taheri was tried before Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran in two sessions on 11 March and 29 April, for “spreading corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) by establishing a new spiritual group called Erfan-e-Halgheh. This trial has begun when Mohammad Ali Taheri is a year from completing his five-year sentence. He has been in solitary confinement since he was arrested, on 4 May 2011.
The same court had convicted Mohammad Ali Taheri on 30 October 2011 of several offences including “insulting Islamic sanctities”, “committing a religiously forbidden act”, which included touching “non-relatives of the opposite sex” (namahram), “unlawful involvement in the medical treatment of patients” and publishing “misleading” (zalleh) writings, and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment, 74 lashes and a fine of nine billion rials (about US$315,000). At the time, the court acquitted Mohammad Ali Taheri of the capital charge of “denigrating Prophet Mohammad” (saab ul-nabi) but allowed the prosecutorial authorities to conduct further investigations into the activities for which he was sentenced to five years and seek to convict him of an additional charge of “spreading corruption on earth”.
Mohammad Ali Taheri has undertaken 12 hunger strikes and attempted suicide four times in protest at his prolonged solitary confinement, lack of access to his family and lawyer and repeated threats to kill him and his wife and children.
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