Trial Session Held for Azeribaijani Activist Samad Molla-Gholi

April 25, 2010 Azerbaijani activist Samad Molla-Gholi was tried in Tabriz on Saturday April 24 on the charge of illegally crossing Iran’s border into Turkey

The trial session of Azerbaijani civil activist Samad Molla-Gholi was held in Tabriz on Saturday, April 24th, at the third branch of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Bayat.

According to Savalan Sesi, the Azerbaijani activist was charged with illegally crossing Iran’s border into Turkey. According to the prosecutor’s indictment, Samad Molla-Gholi left Iran by crossing the land border into Turkey together with Mohammad Yarhoun, another Azerbaijani activist now a refugee in Turkey. He returned to Iran by illegally crossing the same border.

Samad Molla-Gholi and Mohammad Yarhoun were previously arrested by police on May 5, 2008, while distributing flyers for the second anniversary of protests against the insulting cartoon of state-run “Iran” newspaper. The lower court had sentenced them to 91 days of imprisonment on the charge of propaganda against the system, a verdict later suspended by the Appeals Court.