The Prosecutor’s Office in Tehran filed an indictment on Monday against political commentator and academic Professor Sadegh Zibakalam for what they called “unfounded statements,” according to a report by Mizan, an Iranian news agency.

The announcement comes after a video of a lecture by Prof. Zibakalam, a retired Professor of Political Science at the University of Tehran, was widely circulated on social media. The video shows him speaking in English at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha on January 20.

During his lecture, entitled: “The Trump Presidency And The 46 Years Of Hostility Between Iran And The US,” he said that young Iranians detest the Palestinians because Iranian leaders support them and they view Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as a hero.

“More than being worried about Trump and what Trump is going to do with Iran, I am worried about the situation in Iran – the sharp contradiction, the sharp conflict between the younger generation of Iranians and their hatred of literally anything which is tied to the Islamic Republic,” Zibakalam said

Zibakalam said that Iranian youth hate Palestinians because the Islamic Republic’s leaders support them. “You’ll be surprised how many Iranians hate Palestinians,” he asserted.

According to a Kan News report, Prof. Zibakalam is an academic and is considered a well-known commentator in Iran and abroad. More than a million people follow his Instagram account. In 2016, he gained publicity after refusing to step on the flags of Israel and the United States painted on the ground at the entrance to Azad University in the city of Mashhad.

According to the Mizan report, Zibakalam, who is currently on medical leave outside of prison, faces multiple cases for “making false statements in the media and on social media.”

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a two-year ban from political activities for “propaganda against the system.”

In a second case, he received a one-year sentence for publishing “false material,” and in a third, he was sentenced to six months in prison for “spreading false information.” The Supreme Court upheld his sentences, Mizan reported.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)