According to received reports, Naser Hemmati—a psychiatrist, writer, translator, and civil rights activist from Abdanan—has been sentenced to new prison terms by the Revolutionary Court of Ilam, in continuation of ongoing judicial and security pressures.
According to a verdict issued on July 20, 2025, Hemmati was sentenced to:
• Three years, six months, and one day in prison on charges of “supporting and endorsing the Zionist regime” (the harshest sentence, to be enforced),
• Fifteen months and one day for “insulting the Supreme Leader”, and
• Six months in connection with alleged affiliation to a Telegram channel.
In a personal statement shared on his social media, Naser Hemmati described the legal proceedings as unfair. He stated that despite an indictment being issued in December 2024, he was never granted access to his case files, and only became aware of the charges and verdict when he visited the courthouse to receive a copy of the judgment.
He emphasized that this violates the principles of fair trial, as he only learned of the accusations when he was no longer a “defendant” but had already been convicted.
Hemmati also wrote that the verdict was based on unreliable reports from informants of the Abdanan Intelligence Office and evidence provided by Iran’s cyber police, which had already been legally dismissed. He denied any association with the mentioned Telegram channel and labeled all accusations as baseless, stating that he would present these objections in his appeal brief.
Naser Hemmati has previously faced judicial prosecution between 2019 and 2021 in Isfahan. He was arrested in December 2019 and, in June 2021, was sentenced to two years for “insulting the Supreme Leader” and one year for “propaganda against the regime”, with two years enforced under Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code. In a separate case in October 2021, he was sentenced to another year for “propaganda against the regime.”