Last Update

Aug. 14, 2021

Organisation

Unknown

Gender

Female

Ethnic Group

Kurdish

Religoius Group

Muslim

Province

Tehran

Occupation

Social Media Activist

Sentence

Six years and eight month in prison

Status

Awaiting trial

Institution investigating

Ministry of Intelligence

Charges

Propaganda against the regime

Place of Birth

Ilam

Somayeh Kargar Awaiting trial

Somayeh Kargar is a philosophy graduate of Tabriz University. She was arrested by security forces at her home in Tehran on October 16, 2020, and transferred to an unknown location.

Security forces searched her home and confiscated a number of Kargar’s personal belongings, including her laptop and mobile phone.

After Kargar’s family investigated her case at the Prosecutor’s Office of Evin, they were informed that she had been arrested because she had committed “cyber crimes.” No other information has been released on the charges Kargar faces.

Kargar also reportedly suffers from a rare eye disease and needs assistance to carry out everyday and personal tasks. She has been denied access to her medication for this disease since her arrest.

Kargar’s arrest took place as part of a wider wave of arrests against labor activists in Iran.

Kargar suffers from a rare eye disease. She was being treated by ophthalmologists in France and her last medical visa was issued in November 2020. But her detention put a stop to her treatment.

On February 3, 2021, Kargar's mother's first meeting with her daughter took place in the presence of security agents. “Somayeh Kargar's mother was pressured by security agents in their first meeting because of speaking in Kurdish. The agents asked her to stop talking in Kurdish,” the Twitter account Bidarzani wrote. "I cannot express my feelings to my children in a language other than Kurdish,” she replied.

On February 11, 2021, one week after this meeting and at the end of the interrogations, Kargar was transferred to Ward 8 of Qarchak Varamin Prison.

In March 2021, the court set a bail of 500 million tomans for the temporary release of Kargar, but her family could not afford the bail amount.

On April 27, 2021, a hearing on the charges against Kargar and five other defendants was held in Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court, and a day later she was released from Qarchak Prison in Varamin on a 500 million toman bail.

Nahid Taghavi, Mehran Raouf, Nazanin Mohammad Nejad, Bahareh Si Soleimani and Elham Samimi were the other five defendants with similar charges. However, it is not clear whether or not their case is related.

Mostafa Nili, lawyer for Kargar and the other five defendants, wrote in his Twitter account on August 4, 2021 that Kargar was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of "participating in running an illegal group" and to eight months in prison for "propaganda against the regime."

 

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