News Center- Atena Farghadani, an Iranian artist and political activist, has been sentenced to six years in prison by 26th Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, her lawyer Mohammad Moghimi said Monday on social platform X.

According to the received report, the artist has been sentenced to five years on charges of “insulting the sacred values of Islam” and one year on charges of “propaganda against the state”.

Atena Farghani was detained on April 13, 2024, by intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while attempting to post some of her caricature artwork in public on a wall on Pasteur Street in Tehran, near the compound of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On April 14, she was transferred to Evin prison on charges of “insulting the sacred values of Islam” and “propaganda against the state”.

Atena Farghadani was first arrested in August 2014 for a cartoon she drew lampooning a family planning law, which depicted lawmakers as animals. After being released on bail, she was rearrested on January 10, 2015, for creating “propaganda against the regime” and several counts of insulting Iran’s government. In June 2015, she was sentenced to 12 years and 9 months in prison on charges of spreading propaganda, insulting the members of parliament through paintings, and colluding against national security. In April 2016, an appeals court reduced her sentence to 18 months. On May 3, 2016, Farghadani was released from Evin Prison.

 

On June 7, 2023, Atena Farghadani was summoned to the Evin prosecutor’s office and arrested after posting a political cartoon on her Instagram account earlier that day. She was later reported to be charged with “disturbing the public order.” She was later released on bail.