Iran sentences civil activist Salar Taher Afshar, imprisoned in Evin Prison, to an additional one-year term in a new case

Hengaw – Thursday, December 25, 2025

Salar Taher Afshar, a Turkish civil activist currently held in Evin Prison, has been sentenced to an additional one year in prison in a new case opened against him while in detention by the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The ruling is linked to his signing of a protest statement condemning death sentences issued against several women and protesting the death of prisoner Somayeh Rashidi in Qarchak Varamin Prison.

According to information received by the Hengaw Human Rights Organization, Taher Afshar, a civil activist from Urmia, was sentenced by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, to one year in prison on the charge of “propaganda against the state” on Sunday, December 20, 2025. The verdict has been formally communicated to him.

The new case was initiated after he signed a statement protesting the death sentences issued against Sharifeh Mohammadi, Varisheh Moradi, and Pakhshan Azizi, as well as condemning the death of Somayeh Rashidi while in custody at Qarchak Prison.

Last December, Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeals sentenced him to five years in prison on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security.” He was subsequently summoned to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office to begin serving the sentence, arrested, and transferred to Evin Prison on April 6, 2025.

Taher Afshar had earlier been arrested after intelligence agents raided his workplace in Urmia and transferred him to the IRGC Intelligence Detention Center in Tabriz on February 18, 2025. He was released on bail in March of that year.

He had previously been arrested on February 5, 2024, in Urmia and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison (Ministry of Intelligence detention facility). He was temporarily released on bail on February 28, 2024, pending trial.