Digital rights activist Erfan Arabi jailed to serve three-year sentence

Hengaw – Saturday, August 1, 2026

Iranian authorities have arrested Erfan Arabi, a 20-year-old digital rights activist, university student, and one of those detained during the January 2026 protests, transferring him to Birjand Central Prison to serve a final three-year prison sentence.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Arabi was arrested on Saturday, August 1, 2026, after reporting to the Sentence Enforcement Office of the Birjand Prosecutor's Office. His original eight-year prison sentence was reduced on appeal by the South Khorasan Provincial Court of Appeals, leaving a three-year prison term as the final and enforceable sentence.

The Birjand Revolutionary Court had initially sentenced Arabi to five years in prison on the charge of "assembly and collusion to commit crimes against national security" and an additional three years for "propaganda against the state," for a combined sentence of eight years. The court refused to provide a written copy of the verdict, informing him of the ruling only verbally. On appeal, the sentence was reduced, and the three-year prison term became final.

Arabi was first arrested in February 2026 after being summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence in Birjand, where security agents confiscated his electronic devices. After nearly three months in detention and interrogation, he was released on bail from Birjand Central Prison in late April 2026 pending the outcome of his appeal.

Erfan Arabi, 20, is from Birjand and studies software engineering at the Birjand branch of Islamic Azad University. He is a digital rights activist and a member of the development team behind the open-source operating system Parch Linux.