Amir Reisiyaan, the lawyer of Hossein Shanbazadeh, announced the issuance of a first-instance ruling in his client’s new case and said that he has been convicted of “spreading lies with the intent to disturb public opinion” and sentenced to one year of ta‘zīr (discretionary) imprisonment.

According to Reisiyaan, this case concerns an audio file of a message that Shanbazadeh, while in prison, had sent to his friends on the occasion of his birthday.

Based on the text of the court’s ruling, the judge, citing reports from the Ministry of Intelligence, found that the attribution of the charge to Shanbazadeh was proven, for the published audio file and also “the documentary image of how the audio file was disseminated in hostile media outlets in cyberspace.”

In its ruling, the court stated that, considering “the scope of the violation of the law and its harmful consequences in society,” as well as the manner of committing the offense, it sentences Hossein Shanbazadeh to serve one year of ta‘zīr imprisonment.

The ruling was issued in person, and, according to the text of the verdict, Shanbazadeh and his lawyer have 20 days from the date of notification to appeal it at the Tehran Province Appeals Court.

Reisiyaan, criticizing the ruling, referred to the court’s references to how the audio file was published in “hostile media outlets in cyberspace.”