Baku, Azerbaijan, May 19
By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:
An Iranian court has sentenced Narges Mohammadi, a human rights lawyer and campaigner, to 10 years in prison.
Running an "illegal group" campaigning against the death penalty aimed at ending capital punishments in the Islamic Republic was among the serious charges levelled against her, the opposition news website Kaleme reported May 18.
The fresh charges against Narges Mohammadi have been filed while she is serving in prison for almost similar charges and has been in and out of jail over the past several years.
"Acting against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the state" are the other charges recently brought against her.
The majority of the death penalties executed in Iran are for the drugs-related offences.
An Oslo-based human rights organization earlier reported that Iran executed 735 convicts in 2014 only, a 10-percent increase year-on-year.
The capital punishment has failed to stop drug trafficking into Iran and it still remains a serious issue in the country.
Iranian officials say the fight against drugs annually costs the country about $1 billion, while about 2 percent of Iranians abuse drugs.