Iran jails 8 youths for Facebook posts: reports

TEHRAN // Iran has jailed eight young people for a total of 127 years for anti-regime posts on Facebook.

The eight, whose names were not given, were jailed for “acting against national security, anti-regime propaganda and insulting religious values and Iranian leaders”, media reports on Monday said.

Those convicted came from Tehran, Yazd, Shiraz, Abadan and Kerman, and were each imprisoned for between 11 and 21 years.

They can appeal against the sentences.

Access to social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, is routinely filtered by Iranian authorities, as are other websites considered un-Islamic or detrimental to the regime.

President Hassan Rouhani, a self-declared moderate, has promised greater tolerance on social, cultural and media issues – a vow that helped him defeat conservatives in last year’s election.

But his fledgling push has been opposed by traditionalists and ultra-conservatives who hold sway in the establishment and key institutions including the judiciary.

In May, eight people were sentenced to jail terms ranging from seven to 20 years for crimes including anti-regime propaganda posted on Facebook, the opposition website Kaleme reported.

* Agence France-Presse