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A prominent Iranian journalist and filmmaker was sentenced on Sunday to three-and-a-half years in prison and 50 lashes for his activities after the disputed 2009 presidential elections. Mohammad Nourizad was sentenced for "distributing propaganda against the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and desecrating the image of thirty years of the Islamic establishment," and insulting the supreme leader, the president, the head of the judiciary, and Ayatollah Elmolhoda of the Assembly of Experts, according to foreign media reports.

Nourizad was initially arrested in November after writing an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticizing the Iranian government for its crackdown on protesters following the disputed presidential election, which resulted in more than 80 deaths. Nourizad was a writer for Kayhan, a publication under the direct supervision of the Khamenei, but Nourizad distanced himself from the paper following the election unrest.