Farzaneh Zilabi

Age: 37

Activities/Rights: Lawyer

Status: Out on bail

Judicial status: 2 years and 6 months imprisonment

Violations: Judicial harassment and threats, lack of due process, unfair trial

Farzaneh Zilabi is a lawyer who was first targeted for representing the Workers Union of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company in Shush, Khuzestan and many other political prisoners since. She was summoned on a number of occasions while representing the Union, notably in May 2021, a week after the head of the Supreme Audit Court of Iran announced that with “the support of the judiciary” the company had been nationalised and its ownership returned to public assets. According to both statements made by Farzaneh herself and her lawyer, she was consistently threatened by authorities to withdraw from the Haft Tappeh case. On 13 September 2021, Farzaneh was sentenced to a year imprisonment and two-year-ban on leaving the country on the charge of “propaganda against the system” by Branch Two of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court.  

Farzaneh was sentenced to a year imprisonment for the charge of “propaganda against the system” and six months for “insulting the leader” by Branch 4 of the Ahvaz Revolutionary court on 21 May 2023. She is currently out on bail, awaiting the implementation of her sentences.