Iranian lawyers who defended 2022 protesters sentenced to prison

Twelve Iranian lawyers who represented protesters during nationwide antigovernment protests in 2022 have been sentenced to three years in prison and fined, a human rights group said, underscoring a continuing crackdown on civil society.

A Revolutionary Court in Mashhad handed down the verdicts on charges of propaganda against the establishment and propaganda in favor of Israel according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Speaking to Iran International, defense attorney Mohammad Olyaifard said the lawyers were punished for doing their jobs.

“These verdicts are part of the ongoing crackdown on civil institutions,” Olyaifard said.

Initially charged in 2022, the lawyers were briefly included under a general amnesty directive but in January 2025 Iranian authorities reopened the case and launched a new round of investigations.

The Islamic Republic has long targeted independent lawyers and civil society advocates. After the nationwide protests beginning in September 2022 were quashed with deadly force, the state has kept a tight lid on civil and political activism with arrests and executions of demonstrators.