Judge Mohammad Moghiseh, Who Could Authorize Her Release, Has Been Unreachable

CHRI: Detained teenage Instagram celebrity Fatemeh Khishvand is currently on a ventilator at Sina Hospital in Tehran after contracting COVID-19 in state custody, while the judge who holds the power to free her is unreachable, according to her lawyer.

“We find it unacceptable that this young woman has now caught the coronavirus in these circumstances while her detention order has been extended during all this time in jail,” human rights lawyer Payam Derafshan told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on April 15, 2020.

“It’s not the prison director’s fault that she’s behind bars,” he added. “The responsibility rests with Mr. [Judge] Moghiseh.”

Fatemeh Khishvand, 18, known on Instagram as “Sahar Tabar,” has been detained since being arrested in October 2019 amid a nationwide crackdown on Instagram celebrities. Her widely followed Instagram account contained photos of her in dramatically altered forms often with heavy makeup and costumes that depicted her as a zombie.

She is facing years in prison for engaging in peaceful freedom of expression on her personal Instagram account and has been charged with “corruption on earth,” “incitement to corruption by encouraging youth to engage in lunacy,” “insulting the sacred” and “acquiring illicit income”

Revolutionary Court Judges in Iran Hold Awesome Power With No Accountability

Presiding Judge Mohammad Moghiseh of Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court repeatedly rejected requests to release Khishvand on bail, even though other prisoners of conscience have been temporarily released since the country’s COVID-19 outbreak, Derafshan told CHRI.

“We went to Mr. Moghiseh’s office many times and asked him to cancel the detention order and grant bail instead,” he said. “All the other people accused in this case have been released and our client is the only one who has remained in detention… But the judge said no.”

“When Judiciary Chief [Ebrahim] Raisi issued an order to release suspects before the [Iranian] new year [on March 20], we went to see Mr. Moghiseh and again he said no. And now that the coronavirus has spread, we keep looking for Mr. Moghiseh but we can’t find him in the courthouse. They say he’s there, but we haven’t seen him.”

Known as a judge that bends to the wishes of hardline state officials and security agencies in cases involving political charges, Moghiseh has sentenced numerous peaceful activists, dissidents and minorities to long prison terms under trumped-up national security charges.

In October 2018, Derafshan and fellow attorney Mohammad Moghimi attempted to sue Moghiseh for unlawful sentencing and displaying a lack of impartiality. But judicial officials operating in the country’s revolutionary court system are rarely held accountable for their actions while defense attorneys are imprisoned for peacefully doing their jobs.

Instagram is the only major US-based social media network app that citizens are legally allowed to use in Iran. Due to traditional forms of advertising being severely censored or expensive in Iran, many Iranians heavily rely on the app for marketing their products and services.

Young Iranians are also increasingly using it to practice freedom of speech and expression, both of which are severely restricted in Iran >>>