Branch 1057 of Tehran’s criminal court announced last week that it had confirmed the sentence of Akbar Taghizadeh, a security officer charged with manslaughter against Sattar Beheshti. Taghizadeh is sentenced to three years imprisonment and a mandatory two-year exile in Borazjan.
Sattar Beheshti, a 32-year old blogger, was arrested on November 21, 2012 by the regime’s cyber police for his social network activities and charged with “acting against national security.” He died under torture and severe beating by the interrogators of the cyber police a few days later. Following domestic and international protests, the Iranian regime was compelled to charge a low level security agent with a crime carrying the mild, three-year prison sentence. The high-ranking regime officials who directed Beheshti’s arrest and torture have not faced arrest, questioning, or other consequences for their involvement.
