21 Year Old Iranian Sentenced To Death For "Insulting Islam" On Messenger App

For "Insulting Islam" Sina Dehghan, a 21-year-old man will not be given the second chance in life, instead a court has asked that the man's life be taken away from him.

Sina was arrested by security forces on October 21, 2015 at a military barracks in Tehran for insulting a prophet of Islam, a criminal charge punishable by death in Iran. 

             

He was convicted at the penal court of the city of Arak, after he insulted the prophet via the online messaging app, Line. Though Line had said it offers end-to-end encryption for its users, so it is not clear how the message had got to Iran security forces.

According to the Center of Human rights in Iran:

During his interrogation, Sina was told that if he signed a confession and repented, he would be pardoned and let go. Unfortunately, he… accepted the charges. Then they sentenced him to death. Later he admitted that he signed the confession hoping to get freed.

Sina had given his confession under duress, and when he asked for a review of his sentence, the supreme court of the land upheld the sentence.

Cartoonist Hadi Heidari who had sympathised with the French during the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris by posting a message on Facebook was arrested and thrown in jail for 8 months.