Blogger sentenced to prison but first 2 lashes!

Iran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi

Blogger, Omid Sheikhaan, who was arrested a while back and has been in custody ever since, was sentenced by branch 109 of the public court of Tehran [located in the ERSHAAD judiciary complex] to one year in prison and 2 lashes. His defense attorney, Mohammad Seyfzadeh announced: "We will appeal this sentence; the case is going to go in front of the appeals committee of the Province of Tehran shortly."

Seyfzadeh expressed hope in the case of this client and said: "There is no basis for the accusations and charges against my client; there is no such a thing as 'internet crimes' and after a while it became clear that many of what they were accusing him of was nothing more than subterfuge."