Tehran files charges against prominent critic after his comments on Palestinians

Tehran's Prosecutor's Office has filed charges against political commentator Sadegh Zibakalam following a speech he delivered in Doha which has enraged the government.

"Due to recent baseless statements made by Sadegh Zibakalam, the Tehran Prosecutor's Office has filed charges against him," Mizan, Iran's judiciary news website, said on Tuesday, without providing further details of the charges.

The charges come after a video of his lecture, titled “The Trump presidency and the 46 years of hostility between Iran and the US,” was widely shared on social media.

"More than being worried about Trump and what Trump is going to do with Iran, I am worried about the situation in Iran – the sharp contradiction, the sharp conflict between the younger generation of Iranians and their hatred of literally anything which is tied to the Islamic Republic,” Zibakalam said in a lecture at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha on US President Trump's inauguration on January 20.

Zibakalam also said that Iran's youth hate Palestinians because the Islamic Republic's leaders support them. "You'll be surprised how many Iranians hate Palestinians," he said, the sympathy now eroded in the wake of October 7.

Instead, he said the young generation see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a "hero" after the war which has seen Tehran's regional allies Hamas and Hezbollah significantly weakened.

Mizan said that Zibakalam, who is currently on medical leave outside of prison, faces multiple cases for "making false statements in the media and on social media."

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a two-year ban from political activities for "propaganda against the system."

In a second case, he received a one-year sentence for publishing "false material," and in a third, he was sentenced to six months in prison for "spreading false information." The Supreme Court upheld his sentences, Mizan reported.