The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders raised alarm over a three-year prison sentence for Iranian activist Hasti Amiri in Iran on Tuesday, calling for the sentence to be revoked.
Hasti Amiri, a human rights defender and prisoners’ rights activist, announced on August 18 that she had been sentenced in absentia by the Tehran Revolutionary Court to three years in prison, along with additional punishments including fines and a travel ban.
“Hearing disturbing news that Iranian human rights defender Hasti Amiri was sentenced to three years in prison,” UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor posted on X.
“Her peaceful advocacy for prisoners' rights and against the death penalty is protected under international law, and I demand that the sentence be revoked immediately.”
Lawlor referenced the account of Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office of the International Organizations in Geneva in her message.
Hasti Amiri’s full sentence includes two years in prison for “spreading falsehoods with the intent to disturb public opinion” and one year for “propaganda against the government.”
“Hasti’s presence in two gatherings in front of Evin Prison opposing the death penalty and Amiri’s writings, where she argues any death sentence in Iran is a political execution, has been identified by the Revolutionary Court as spreading lies and propaganda against the government,” a source familiar with the case told Iran International on condition of anonymity.
The Revolutionary Courts of Tehran also fined her 500 million rials ($480) for “spreading false information” and 33 million rials ($31.8) for “appearing in public without the mandatory hijab.”
Additionally, the sentence includes a two-year travel ban and a two-year ban on membership in political or social organizations.
Hasti Amiri was previously imprisoned in 2024 for participating in a peaceful protest the previous year against several incidents of poisoning of schoolgirls in Iran.
The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement erupted in Iran in 2022 after the killing of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody, with women burning hijabs and demanding an end to mandatory Islamic dress codes and discriminatory laws.
Despite a state crackdown that killed hundreds and detained thousands, acts of defiance continue, with many women refusing to wear hijabs in public.
Larijani, a former parliament speaker and veteran nuclear negotiator, was appointed last month to lead the powerful body in charge of key security decisions, where he also holds a parallel role as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's personal representative.
His mandate places him at the center of Tehran’s decision-making apparatus following a 12-day war with Israel in June, and his comments marked the most dovish yet on renewing US diplomacy by a top security official since the conflict.
“The path for negotiations with the US is not closed; yet these are the Americans who only pay lip service to talks and do not come to the table — and they wrongfully blame Iran for it,” Larijani wrote on X, posting on behalf of the council.
"WE INDEED PURSUE RATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS. By raising unrealizable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path which negates any talks."
Speaking separately to Iranian media managers, Larijani dismissed Western demands that Iran scale back its missile program as unacceptable.
“The enemy says we must back down from our missile capability. Which honorable Iranian today would want to hand over his weapon to the enemy?” he said. “We also see negotiations as the path to resolving the nuclear issue. But by raising issues such as missiles, (it shows) they don’t want talks to take shape.”
His remarks underscore Tehran’s refusal to link missiles to nuclear diplomacy. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) restricted Iran’s nuclear program but did not directly address missiles. However, UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the deal, included language urging restraint on missile development.
Larijani argued that Washington is using the missile issue to derail diplomacy.
“At present, the Americans do not want to negotiate. After all, the war broke out at a time when we were in the middle of negotiations,” he said, referring to the recent 12-day war with Israel.
Larijani's comments come amid escalating nuclear tensions. Britain, France and Germany — the E3 — have triggered the UN’s “snapback” mechanism under Resolution 2231, seeking to restore pre-2015 sanctions over what they call Iran’s serious non-compliance.
Tehran, backed by Russia and China, has rejected the move as null and void. Iranian lawmakers have even threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if sanctions are reimposed.
The SNSC chief’s statement on Tuesday called restrictions on Iran’s missile program “unrealizable,” signaling that while Tehran insists negotiations remain possible, it will not make concessions on what it considers a core pillar of its defense doctrine.
The sanctions target Waleed Khaled Hameed al-Samarra’i, based in the United Arab Emirates, along with his firms Babylon Navigation DMCC and Galaxy Oil FZ LLC, and nine Liberia-flagged tankers.
Washington said the network covertly blended Iranian and Iraqi oil through ship-to-ship transfers in the Persian Gulf and in Iraqi ports, marketing it as solely Iraqi in origin.
The Treasury estimated the operation generated about $300 million annually for both Iran and al-Samarra’i.
It accused the group of using shell companies in the Marshall Islands to obscure ownership of vessels and employing tactics such as night transfers and location spoofing to hide activity.
“Iraq cannot become a safe haven for terrorists, which is why the United States is working to counter Iran’s influence in the country,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“By targeting Iran’s oil revenue stream, Treasury will further degrade the regime’s ability to carry out attacks against the United States and its allies.”
The measures follow sanctions announced in July against another network accused of blending Iranian and Iraqi oil.
For two consecutive years, Chinese records show imports of “Iraqi” oil exceeding Iraq’s declared shipments by around 100,000 barrels per day—worth more than $2.5 billion annually.
The gap has grown since 2021, suggesting a persistent pattern of disguised flows, according to experts.
Iraq’s oil minister Hayyan Abdul-Ghani acknowledged earlier this year that Iranian tankers were using forged Iraqi documents and said the matter had been reported to the United States.
