Iranian authorities have jailed a prominent blogger for 12 years on charges of being an Israeli spy.

Hossein Shanbehzadeh, known for his satirical takes on the government’s beliefs, was arrested in June by security forces in the northwestern city of Ardabil. Within 24 hours and before being granted access to legal counsel, the judiciary claimed Shanbehzadeh maintained covert connections to Israel’s Mossad and had a history of insulting Shia imams.

These allegations are reportedly linked to a single incident when Shanbehzadeh authored a dot as a mocking response to a tweet from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The perceived “insolence” toward Khamenei proved too much for the regime’s hardline enforcers, considering the dot comment got more engagement than the ruling cleric’s original post.

Despite zero evidence, Shanbehzadeh was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison for “pro-Israel propaganda,” four years for “insulting Islamic sanctities,” two years for “spreading falsehoods,” and one year for “anti-regime propaganda” activity, according to Iran International.

In its ruling, the Iranian court also falsely accused Shanbehzadeh of supporting the removal of the regime’s mandatory hijab law, creating a negative media atmosphere against Iran’s elections, and expressing joy at the death of former president Ebrahim Raisi.

Critics have questioned how a blogger without access to any classified information could possibly be working for Israel’s Mossad. Even famed chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov joined the fray by responding to news of Shanbehzadeh’s plight with a solitary dot on X, mirroring the blogger’s original Khamenei troll.

With protests continuing to simmer against the regime’s political and economic repression, Shanbehzadeh’s arrest appears clearly aimed at those whose ability to galvanize dissent pose a threat. Only last year did the regime finally exonerate Maziar Ebrahimi, an Iranian businessman falsely accused of spying for Israel. Ebrahimi has been on record detailing how he was brutally tortured into a sham confession about assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists in 2012.