Video: Iranian Cartoonist May Face Extended Jail Sentence For Shaking Lawyer's Hand

By R. Siva Kumar - 11 Sep '15 13:25PM

Atena Farghadani is a 29-year-old Iranian artist who was imprisoned for 12 years for criticizing government officials.

She is facing legal charges for "illegitimate sexual relationship short of adultery." She shook hands with her lawyer Mohammad Moghimi, who had visited her in jail, according to The Independent. It is illegal in Iran.

Earlier, she was arrested August 2014 for publishing "satirical" political images on Facebook, and was shut up in the Evin prison in Tehran.

As a prisoner, she wrote protest letters to the Iranian rulers, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, Hassan Rouhani, the president, and the head of the prison service. She gave detailed narratives of the ill-treatment by the prison guards, reports The Telegraph.

When her letters were ignored, she put up a video of her protests on YouTube.

"I have produced this video with my own free will and consent," she said.

"I am publishing it to prevent such maltreatment of any prisoner. I can only hope that in the future I hope that there will be no political prisoners at all. I also hope that no political prisoner will receive such demeaning and degrading treatment."

However, that led to another arrest on January, 2015, when Judge Abolghassem Salavati, a notorious judge who has ordered a string of executions, tried her only for a day.

Various charges were slammed on her, including "colluding against national security, spreading "propaganda against the system" and "insulting" the supreme leader, the president and her interrogators.

The latest accusation for having shaken her lawyer's hand may extend her imprisonment, according to hngn.

One petition to request her release has been given by Amnesty International.