Iran women activists get suspended lashing sentences

By Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Three Iranian women's rights campaigners have received suspended lashing and jail sentences for taking part in a rally, a fellow activist said on Tuesday.

It was the latest sign of the authorities clamping down on activists demanding greater women's rights in the conservative Islamic Republic, which rejects Western accusations it is discriminating against women.

"Women's rights activists particularly object to sentences that include lashing," said Sussan Tahmasebi, who herself is appealing a partly suspended two-year prison sentence for involvement in a banned demonstration in the capital in 2006.

"These sentences are intended to embarrass and humiliate human rights activists," she told Reuters.

She said Minou Mortazi, Nasrin Afzali and Nahid Jafari were sentenced to six months in jail and 10 lashes for attending a gathering outside a Tehran court in March last year where Tahmasebi and three other activists were standing trial.

The sentences were suspended so they will only be carried out if they are found guilty of another crime within two years.

A fourth activist who attended the March event, Zeinab Payghambarzadeh, was handed a two-year suspended jail term.

The court issued its ruling on the cases of Afzali, Jafari and Payghambarzadeh a few days ago while Mortazi received her sentence about two months ago.