[JURIST] Former Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh has been sentenced to six years in prison for his participation in protesting last year’s contested Iranian presidential election, state-run Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported Monday. Aminzadeh was a leading member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and a supporter of Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Moussavi during the June 2009 election. He was an outspoken critic of the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to ISNA, Aminzadeh was convicted by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran of conspiring to disturb security and spreading propaganda. The Iranian government has yet to officially confirm Aminzadeh’s sentence.
Aminzadeh is one of the highest-ranking opposition officials to be convicted for protesting the highly disputed presidential election. Last month, Iran’s Prosecutor-General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei called for sedition trials against leaders of protests following the presidential election. Earlier this month, Fars News Agency reported that Iran will soon execute nine people for their roles in the post-election protests. The nine protesters were charged with the capital crime of moharebeh, which means waging war against God. Two others were executed for the same crime in January. Mousavi has condemned the hangings, which he views as being aimed at deterring protesters from taking to the streets on February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.