PARIS: Iranian authorities have handed down a jail sentence of over five years to the uncle of Mahsa Amini — the young Iranian-Kurdish woman whose death in custody sparked months of protests — over his anti-government views expressed during the 2022 demonstrations, rights groups said on Tuesday.

Safa Aeli, 30, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison by the Revolutionary Court in the family’s hometown of Saqez in northwestern Iran, the Norway-based Hengaw group and US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.

In addition, he was punished with sanctions including a highly unusual demand to produce a written document outlining the biography of a member of the security forces killed in the protests and then submit his “own personal interpretation” of the finished document to the judicial authorities, Hengaw said.

Quoting family lawyer Saleh Nikbakht, HRANA said that part of the sentence was suspended and Aeli would have to serve three years and six months in prison.

The charges against him include taking part in protests that violated internal security, dissemination of anti-government propaganda, and insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2024