The lawyer of Sobhan Arabzadeh (a student activist at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman) says that despite the general amnesty announced for those arrested during the 2022 protests, pressure from university and security authorities on his client continues. Arabzadeh’s case was declared “closed” after his arrest in 2022, but according to Hossein Taj, in December 2022 the security office of Shahid Bahonar University summoned him to the disciplinary committee, put him under pressure, threatened to withhold his student card unless he signed a pledge, and after his refusal, detained him in a room. He was eventually released, and his student card was retrieved by his father.
According to his lawyer’s account, in May 2023 several plainclothes agents without identification stopped Arabzadeh on the Bahonar University campus, physically assaulted him, confiscated his personal belongings (including his mobile phone and laptop), and forced him into a vehicle. Meanwhile, he filed a complaint against the university president, security officials, and unidentified individuals on charges of “abduction, assault, and theft.” However, Bahonar University also filed a complaint against him, accusing him of “breaking a car window, resisting, and committing intentional assault.”
In July 2025, the Kerman court sentenced this student to three months in prison, a fine of 18 million rials, and payment of 0.5% of full blood money; this verdict is currently under appeal. The student’s lawyer also stated that the disciplinary committee’s ruling of a ban on entering the university was issued six months after what he described as a “de facto expulsion.” He further noted that, contrary to the general amnesty, the university forced his client to sign a pledge, and his refusal was used as a pretext for suspension from studies and physical assault.
