Iran convicts woman for attending volleyball game
TEHRAN, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A British-Iranian woman was sentenced to a year's imprisonment for attending a men's volleyball match in Iran, her lawyer said.
Activist Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, was arrested in June after arriving in Iran in February. While protesting a law barring women from sports events, she was arrested at an Iran-Italy match in June, released and re-arrested a week later.
She was among a group of women at the volleyball match who were allegedly beaten while attempting to attend the event. After she arrived in Iran, Ghavami, who is from London, began meeting with members of Tehran's heavily-monitored activists.
She was found guilty of spreading anti-regime propaganda, lawyer Alizadeh Tabatabaei said. Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholam Hussein Mohseni-Ejei said her arrest "has nothing to do with sports."
Iran considers her an Iranian citizen, her dual British and Iranian citizenship having no legal standing in Iran.
More than 700,000 people have signed an online petition, sponsored by the advocacy organization Amnesty International, calling for her release. The British Foreign Office said in a statement it had "concerns about the grounds for this prosecution, due process during the trial and Miss Ghavami's treatment whilst in custody."
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Iran convicts woman for attending volleyball game