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2 Iran students get 16-year jail terms for 'sabotage'

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Agence France-Presse

Two Iranian students have been sentenced to 16 years&#x27; jail on charges including sabotage and collaboration with outlawed anti-regime groups, judicial authorities in the Islamic republic announced Tuesday.Local media named them as Ali Younessi and Amir-Hossein Moradi of Tehran&#x27;s Sharif University of Technology, and said they had been under arrest since April 2020.They received 10-year terms for &quot;destruction of public installations&quot;, five years for plotting against national security and &quot;cooperation with hostile groups&quot;, and another for propaganda against the Islamic republic, judiciary spokesman Zabihollah Khodayian told state television.Benefiting from the concurrent running of sentences, they will serve only 10 years, &quot;the heaviest sentence&quot; which was imposed, Khodayian said.In May 2020, the judiciary said the pair were accused of having been in contact with &quot;counter-revolutionary groups&quot;, notably the banned and exiled People&#x27;s Mujahedeen, which authorities have previously blamed for unrest in Iran.Khodayian said they were also accused of &quot;corruption on earth,&quot; which is generally punishable by death, &quot;but the court found no proof&quot;.Their lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said he would appeal against the &quot;heavy&quot; ruling.&quot;The two young men confessed after 50 days in isolation, without any telephone call and without the right of access to a lawyer,&quot; he wrote on Twitter.In a separate trial, Khodayian said the producer of a popular television drama has been handed a 20-year prison sentence over a corruption case.The court also ordered the confiscation of Mohammad Emami&#x27;s assets and banned him from working in the public sector for &quot;massive disruption of the economic system through money laundering&quot;, Khodayian said on state TV.Emami produced the series &quot;Shahrzad&quot;, about a love triangle set around the time of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who was overthrown in a 1953 coup backed by the United States and Britain.&quot;Shahrzad&quot; was a hit over three seasons between 2015 and 2018.The judiciary&#x27;s Mizan Online agency said the trial of Emami and 32 others began in August 2020. Authorities accused the producer of having &quot;created a network of corruption&quot; through Sarmayeh bank.

Two Iranian students have been sentenced to 16 years' jail on charges including sabotage and collaboration with outlawed anti-regime groups, judicial authorities in the Islamic republic announced Tuesday.