ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Three lawyers in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz have been sentenced to prison and banned from leaving the country after being convicted as part of the expanding wave of crackdowns on thousands of civil society members on politically motivated charges across Iran since anti-government protests in January.
Nazanin Salari, Mahmoud Taravat-Rouy, and Masoud Ahmadian were sentenced to two years in prison for “assembly and collusion with the intent to commit crimes against national security,” by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Shiraz, said their lawyer, Mostafa Nili, in an interview with the pro-reform outlet Emtedad. The court ordered a two-year ban on foreign travel, including the cancellation and confiscation of their passports. The three were additionally sentenced to one year in prison on charges of “propaganda against the system,” but were acquitted of a separate charge of “cooperating with a hostile government.”
According to Nili, the lawyers have long provided legal counsel promoting children's rights, women's rights, domestic violence legislation reformation, and legal defense in cases involving child marriage and violence against women.
According to Amnesty International, more than 6,000 people have been arrested in Iran since the outbreak of the conflict involving Iran, the United States, and Israel earlier this year. Those detained include activists, journalists, protesters, as well as ordinary citizens accused of sharing information with foreign actors, such as taking photos and videos of strike sites.
Arrests have ranged from prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, released on bail in mid-May, to Tehran-based photographer Tahmineh Monzavi, arrested in 2012, both of whom spent a month each in solitary confinement.
Others, such as news photographer Artin Ghazanfari and well-known photographer Navin Zarebin Irani, have remained in prison in a state of ‘legal limbo’ since May.
Civil society members and minority groups are prime targets for such arrests.
Iranian authorities detained Kurdish civil activist Mohammad Rezaei, a member of the Nozhin Socio-Cultural Association, on Saturday, after he was summoned to court in the Kurdish-majority city of Sanandaj. Rezaei was ordered to begin serving a one-year prison sentence on charges of “propaganda against the state” for promoting Kurdish-language rights.
In a separate incident, intelligence forces arrested Kurdish siblings Kazhal Rahmani and Danyal Rahmani during coordinated raids in the Kurdish province on Saturday. Rights groups reported that security forces entered their homes without presenting judicial warrants and transferred the detainees to undisclosed locations.
Rights organizations argue that cases involving lawyers and civil society activists increasingly rely on broadly defined national security charges, which they say are used to criminalize peaceful advocacy and human rights work.
They have warned of intensified repression following recent regional tensions and security developments following the US-Iran War with targeted strikes against regime and military leaders in Iran.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that Iran carried out 2,063 executions in 2025, the highest annual figure recorded in more than three decades, raising alarm among international rights organizations.
According to Nili, the three lawyers are expected to appeal their convictions in the coming weeks.
