A lawyer and activist loyal to the Islamic Republic has announced that the Revolutionary Court in the city of Shiraz sentenced him to a two-year suspended sentence for a critical remark about Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Charged with "insulting" the Supreme Leader, the young attorney, Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi has also been condemned to sixty trips to his hometown, Shiraz, southern Iran to report to the fearsome Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' Intelligence Organization, IRGCIO.
Kamfiroozi wrote on his Twitter page on June 29 that after his speech on Student's Day in 2018 in Shiraz, the IRGCIO sued him several times and the court finally convicted him.
According to the young lawyer, the Islamic Revolutionary Court convicted him for only two sentences in his speech; "The Leader can be criticized when it comes to the rights and freedoms of citizens" and "It's saddening that the leadership is not aware of the violation of civil rights, and it is hundred times more unfortunate if he is aware of the violations."
Son of a "shahid" (martyr killed in Iran-Iraq war, 1980-88), Kamfirouzi used to be a regular guest at Khamenei's annual gatherings with the university students.
Attendants of such gatherings are hand-picked students who are instructed what to say and how to behave while meeting the Supreme Leader.
During one of these meetings on July 2, 2016, Kamfirouzi "had dared" to remind Khamenei that the Islamic Republic authorities arrest and violate the rights of citizens despite statements by Khamenei that the criticism of the Supreme Leader is allowed.
"Based on the IRGCIO reports, I have been summoned to the prosecutor's office in different cities ---for years. The reports were so baseless that I was acquitted in four cases immediately after the first summons. However, the insistence on filing lawsuits and summoning me was endless," Kamfirouzi tweeted.
One of earlier tweets by Kamfirouzi was widely circulated in March 2018 when he questioned Khamenei's remark on the freedom of expression in Iran.
In his annual Norooz (Iranian new year) speech on March 21, 2018, in the city of Mashhad, northeast Iran, Khamenei had maintained, "Some unfair individuals take advantage of free speech and say that there is no freedom in the country, and foreigners repeat this propaganda, while in the country there is freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of choice," adding, "Today, no one under the Islamic Republic is prosecuted or under pressure for being opposed to the government in their thoughts or views."
Firing back, Kamfirouzi tweeted, "This speech by the Leader is not understandable for me since an IRGCIO report has led the Judiciary to file seven charges against me."
Kamfirouzi asserted that he was charged merely for some "simple criticism" of the country's management.