Immediate & Unconditional Release of Ebrahim Yazdi

Aging politician summoned to serve out sentence
Sat, 04/21/2012

Ebrahim Yazdi, the secretary general of the Freedom Movement of Iran, has been summoned to Evin Prison to serve out his eight-year prison term.

Mizan Khabar reports that Yazdi was informed on Monday that he has 20 days to reports to Evin Prison to serve out his sentence.

According to this report, while the preliminary court had said that his case has not yet been sent to the appeals court, the case was indeed forwarded to the appellate court and finalized without any input from the defendant or his lawyer.

Yazdi was arrested on several occasions after the controversial 2009 presidential election, which was followed by mass arrests and a crackdown on election protesters.

Yazdi, who is 81, has been called Iran’s oldest political prisoner in recent years.

The Revolutionary Court sentenced Yazdi to eight years in prison for the charge of “propaganda against the regime and assembly and collusion to disturb national security.”

Yazdi has contested the sentence but reportedly was not given a chance to present his defence to the appellate court.

One of the charges against Yazdi is the establishment of the Freedom Movement of Iran Party, which he contests, since he joined the party after it had been established in 1961 by such popular political figures as Mehdi Bazargan and Ayatollah Taleghni.

Bazargan headed the transitional government after the 1979 Revolution in Iran but was sidelined within a year. Following Bazargan’s death, the Freedom Movement Party was led by Ebrahim Yazdi, then-foreign minister in the transitional government, and it was eventually banned by the Islamic Republic.

SOURCE : Radio Zamaneh