"A French prosecutor Friday sought a one-year jail term for an Iranian woman accused of promoting "terrorism" online in a case linked to a possible prisoner swap with two French citizens. Judgment in the case is expected on February 26. Mahdieh Esfandiari, a 39-year-old Iranian, was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting and inciting "terrorism" on social media."
"She is accused of having written posts for a channel called "Axis of the Resistance" in 2023 and 2024 on platforms including Telegram, X, Twitch and YouTube. She was released after some eight months in pre-trial detention in October pending her trial, which started Tuesday. It was scheduled long before the latest protests erupted in Iran. The prosecutor requested a four-year jail term, including three years suspended, for Esfandiari, but said it would not be necessary for her to be re-incarcerated."
Mahdieh Esfandiari, 39, was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting and inciting "terrorism" on social media, including comments about the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. She is accused of writing posts for a channel called "Axis of the Resistance" across platforms such as Telegram, X, Twitch and YouTube in 2023 and 2024. She was released after roughly eight months in pre-trial detention in October pending trial. A prosecutor sought a one-year jail term and also requested a four-year sentence including three years suspended but said re-incarceration would not be necessary. Iran said it would consider exchanging Esfandiari for two French citizens, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who were arrested in May 2022, freed in November, but remain unable to leave Iran.
Read at The Local France
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]