Summoning of Naser Hemmati, writer and former political prisoner, to court and issuance of a sentence of 6 years, 3 months, and 2 days in prison, including charges of “defending Israel.”
On July 25, 2025, Naser Hemmati, a psychiatrist, translator, writer, and civil activist from Abdanan, who has a record of several previous arrests and convictions due to civil activities, after being summoned to Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of Ilam on July 20, 2025, learned for the first time that, according to the verdict of this court and based on the claim of the Ilam Prosecutor, he has been sentenced to 3 years, 6 months, and 1 day of imprisonment (the most severe part being enforceable) on the charge of “efforts to strengthen and endorse the Zionist regime,” 15 months and 1 day of imprisonment for “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and also 6 months of imprisonment in relation to a Telegram channel.
Naser Hemmati’s statements on being denied access to his case file and the use of invalid evidence in the court’s ruling:
In statements published on his personal pages, Naser Hemmati described the handling of his latest case as unfair and contrary to the law and wrote: Since the issuance of the new indictment “based on reports from informants of Abdanan Intelligence and technical examinations by experts of the cyber division of that same organization” on November 27, 2024, despite an explicit order from the judicial authority, he was never allowed to access his file, and only on July 20, 2025, when visiting Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of Ilam to obtain a copy of the ruling, was he able for the first time to view his case and learn about the details of the charges and the issued verdict.
According to Hemmati, this caused him to become aware of his charges and convictions only when he was no longer a “defendant” but rather a “convicted person.” He emphasized that if the documents in this case had legal validity, there would have been no need for the unlawful conduct of the Intelligence Organization and the Judiciary.
Naser Hemmati wrote that he will present these statements, along with the explicit opinion of the Cyber Police, which invalidates the legal credibility of all case documents (copies of materials from a Telegram channel of which he was neither the admin, nor a member, nor had any connection to), in his appeal brief.
Hemmati described the process of “technical examinations” in this case as “akin to technical interrogation,” and said: “I cannot endure even those 3 years, 6 months, and 1 day; now I’ve been sentenced to another six months just because the experts were displeased.”
He explained that, according to the verdict of Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of Ilam, due to what the prosecutor described as “efforts to strengthen and endorse the Zionist regime,” he has been sentenced to 3 years, 6 months, and 1 day of imprisonment (without eligibility for reductions, as the most severe and enforceable punishment), and also sentenced to 15 months and 1 day of imprisonment for “insulting the Supreme Leader” (which, however, will not be carried out).
Summoning of Naser Hemmati and issuance of indictment; start of a new case with serious charges:
Naser Hemmati, a psychiatrist, translator, writer, poet, civil activist, and political prisoner from Abdanan, was officially summoned on July 20, 2025, to Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of Ilam to obtain a copy of the verdict. The indictment related to this case had previously been issued against him on November 27, 2024.
In December 2024, after being summoned to Branch One of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of Abdanan, Hemmati was arrested and later temporarily released from prison on bail of one billion tomans until trial. The charges brought against him included: “Sab-al-Nabi (insulting and offending the Prophet),” “propaganda against the regime,” “insulting Khamenei,” “spreading falsehoods in cyberspace,” and “endorsing and strengthening the Zionist regime.”
