A hard-line Iranian court has sentenced 15 liberal dissidents to jail terms of up to 11 years for anti-state propaganda and insulting top officials, sources close to the defendants said on Saturday.
The dissidents, members of a "religious nationalist alliance" which advocates the separation of religion and state, were arrested during a hard-line crackdown against leading critics of Iran's Islamic establishment two years ago.
Tehran's Revolutionary Court handed out sentences ranging from four to 11 years and banned the defendants from any political activities for 10 years, Marzieh Mortazi-Langroudi, wife of one of the dissidents, told Reuters.
They were found guilty of a range of crimes including propaganda against the state, insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and collecting confidential state documents, said Mohammad Sharif, lawyer for six of the defendants.
The dissidents have 20 days from Sunday to appeal the verdicts.
"I believe that the rulings are illogical and I hope they will be looked into at the appeals court because the charges are baseless," Mortazi-Langroudi said.
A Revolutionary Court last year sentenced more than 30 liberal dissidents from the now-banned Freedom Movement of Iran for up to 10 years on charges of trying to overthrow the Islamic system. They are still free waiting for their appeals court rulings.