FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!

I read a few days ego the news about Ahmad Zeidabadi winning the 2011 ENESCO Prize. I decided to write a post with the names of political prisoners. Soon after, I realized that is an impossible task. There are so many political prisoners in Iran. I have some names below and I will add to the list as I find time. You can help by TAKING ACTION. Demand their release by writing letters to Iranian government, newspapers inside and outside Iran, foreign organizations, activists, and governments. Start a campaign! Send letters/emails to demand their immediate and unconditional release. If you live outside Iran, organize a protest action in their support. We, together, can put pressure on the Iranian government to release them.

You can also help me in completing the list by sending me names of political prisoners.

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	Nasrin Sotoudeh (born in 1963) is a leading human rights lawyer who represented imprisoned opposition activists and politicians as well as juveniles facing death penalty. Her clients have included noted journalist Isa Saharkhiz and Heshmat Tabarzadi.  Sotoudeh was arrested in September 4, 2010 on charges of threatening the national security. In January 2011, Iranian authorities sentenced Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison in addition to barring her from practicing law and from leaving the country for 20 years. Watch her speech (in Farsi with English subtitle). Amnesty International has call Action for her release.
	Iranian journalist, Ahmad Zeidabadi  won the 2011 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. He is also the winner of World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award for 2010. Announcing the UNESCO decision, jury president Diana Senghor said: “ The final choice of Ahmad Zeidabadi pays a tribute to his exceptional courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression, democracy, human rights, tolerance, and humanity. Beyond him, also the Prize will award the numerous Iranian journalists who are currently jailed.” Zeidabadi is currently serving a six-year jail sentence following Iran’s presidential election in 2009.
	Hengameh Shahidi, a journalist and women's rights activist, is currently serving a six-year sentence in Evin Prison, Tehran. A PhD student at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the UK, she had returned to Iran for the 2009 presidential election. There, she acted as an adviser on women’s issues to presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi. She was arrested on June 30 2009 and held for over four months without charge. She was tortured and otherwise ill-treated in detention, including with threats that she would be executed. On one occasion, she says, she was subjected to a mock execution. ‘Were the individuals who beat me in the basements of Evin Prison brought before the [prison] disciplinary committee?’ Shahidi to prison officials who threatened her with punishment if she continued her hunger strike in October 2009. Shahidi suffers from a heart condition, for which she requires regular medication. SIGN THE PETITION FOR THE RELEASE OF HENGAMEH SHAHIDI
	Abbas Amir Entezam born January 2, 1933 is the longest held prisoners of Iran. Entezam was the spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister in the Interim Cabinet of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979. In 1981 he was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of spying for the U.S. He has always denied all the allegations that have been put against him in his trial and asks for a retrial. According to Entezam’s website, he currently is on medical leave.  You can find a pdf copy of his memoirs (An Sooye Eteham) on his website.
	Shiva Nazar Ahari (born 1984) is a human rights activist and a founding member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters.  She has been jailed several times. The last time was 14 June 2009 and she was held in Evin prison until September 23, 2009 when she was released on an equivalent of a $200,000 bail. On December 21, 2009 she was arrested once again along with several other activists who were on their way to the city of Qom to attend the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. After 266 days in prison, she was released on September 12, 2010 on a bail of five billion Iranian rials roughly equivalent to over $ 500,000. On Sunday, March 13 2011, it was announced that Shiva Nazar Ahari was the 2011 recipient of the Theodor Haecker prize for "courageous internet reporting on human rights violations". The prize is named after Theodor Haecker, a philosopher, writer and anti-Nazi cultural critic.
	Mansour Osanloo is a leading trade union activist in Iran where he has been imprisoned several times from 2005 to 2008. Osanloo is currently held in Evin Prison, serving a five-year prison sentence. He is a founding member of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, an independent union that has been campaigning vigorously for workers’ rights.
	Bahareh Hedayat, student activist has been sentenced to 9 1/2 years imprisonment for propaganda against the regime through interviews with foreign media, insulting the leader and the president. A group of Iranian activists now campaigning for her release have distributed a petition, and to call more attention to her situation, they have launched a facebook page. In a video message from Hedayat released in 2010 (in Persian with English subtitles) she speaks about the pressures faced by Iranian student activists.
	Milad Asadi has been detained without charge in Evin Prison, Tehran, since 1 December 2009. Amnesty International has call for URGENT ACTION for his release. He is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.
	Shabnam and Farzad Madadzadeh  were arrested on February 21, 2008 and were sentenced to five years in prison in Rajaei Shahr Prison. When Judge Mogheisi asked Shabnam Madadzadeh to explain the tortures, the student activist stated that in addition to 71 days in solitary confinement, she was beaten and physically tortured with cable wires. Judge Mogheisi replied, “How can you consider those acts of torture?” Since Shabnam and Farzad’s arrest, their family has been under a great deal of psychological pressure. Abdolallah Madadzadeh, Shabnam’s father, has lost the vision in one of his eyes and his wife is being treated for severe heart problems. Read Shabnam's moving letter from prison.
	Majid Tavakoli (born 1986), a prominent student leader was arrested on December 7, 2009  during the student protests over the disputed Presidential Election of 2009. He is a student at Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology. In 2006 he was imprisoned for 15 months for insulting Islam and the Iran's leadership in student publications, an accusation continuously denied and rejected by him. Listen to his courageous speech at the University of Tehran right before he was arrested. In honor of his efforts, Tavakkoli was given the 2009 Homo Homini Award.
	Emad Baghi is a human rights activist, a journalist, prisoners' rights advocate, a philosopher and a writer. He is the founder and head of the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights and the Society of Right to Life Guardians in Iran, and the author of twenty books, six of which have been banned in Iran. Baghi was imprisoned in connection with his exposé writings on the Chain murders of Iran, which occurred in Autumn 1998, and imprisoned again in late 2007 for another year on charges of "acting against national security." Baghi was among the numerous journalists and reformists detained by the government of Iran on 28 December 2009 in the wake of violent crackdowns on Ashura protests. Emad was released, and once again rearrested on 5 December 2010. Baghi is suffering from "exacerbation of his respiratory disease". On the first day of Nowruz (Persian New Year) on the 20th March, 2011, Emad had been moved to hospital due to another heart attack. After a few hours in hospital that night, he was transferred to his solitary confinement.
	Ayatollah Boroujerdi  is a cleric who advocates the separation of religion and government and has been imprisoned several times by the Iranian government. Boroujerdi and many of his followers were arrested in Tehran on October 8, 2006, following a clash between police and hundreds of his followers. According to Amnesty International "poor prison conditions, and torture and ill-treatment, have reportedly led to a deterioration in Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s medical conditions. Watch his speech before his arrest.
	Abdollah Momeni was arrested during protests after the election in June 2009 and later sentenced to eight years in prison for his presence at post-election gatherings and activities against national security. According to witness statements, Momeni is subject to abusive treatment in prison. he was awarded for the 2009 by Homo Homini Award.
	Isa Saharkhiz (born in 1953) is a political figure, journalist and former head of the press department at the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Education during former President Khatami's administration. On June 20, 2009, Saharkhiz was arrested in northern Iran. Saharkhiz was sentenced to 3 years in jail, is prohibited from leaving the country for one year, and he is also barred from involvement with the press or engaging in any political activities for 5 years. Saharkhiz said: “I will not ask for an appeal in this show trial.”
	Arjang Davoudi, a vocal activist,  has been in prison since 2003. He was sentenced to 15 years of prison; and 74 lashes for having dared to spoken to a Canadian journalist, who worked on a documentary (Forbidden Iran) about the death of Zahra Kazemi. Arjang has not been silent in prison: he secretly wrote a book about savage tortures he endured and there is also a video clip he has made from Evin prison, speaking in English, to the world community, reiterating his hopes and struggles for Iran (video is posted in 2008). He protested to the recent execution of the innocent Kurd prisoners with a poem. He also raised a warning flag when Ali Saremi's death sentence after over two decades of imprisonment was upheld.
	Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki Jailed Iranian blogger requires immediate surgery, denied prison leave. Take Action. Hossein is charged with “Membership in the Iran Proxy internet group”, “Propaganda against the regime”, and “Insulting the Supreme Leader and the President”. In December 2010, one year after his arrest, a 15-year prison sentence issued earlier for the blogger was finalized by the Islamic Republic Appeals Court. Reporters Without Borders said that this is the heaviest sentence for a blogger to date after the 19 and a half year sentence given to another blogger, Hossein Derakhshan. In February 2011, the HRANA group reported that the Ministry of Intelligence ordered the removal of Hossein’s infected kidney, even though the Evin prison doctors have said that a laser operation on his kidney would allow for it to function again without removal.
	Heshmat Tabarzadi, an activist has been arrested for his political activities, most recently in December 28, 2009. In October 2010, the regime sentenced him to nine more years in jail and 74 lashes. Following the December 7, 2009 Student Day protests in Iran, Tabarzadi published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. On the evening of December 27, the day of the 2009 Ashura protests, Tabarzadi was interviewed on Voice of America Persian. (I was watching his interview with VOA with Jamshid Chalangi. He was arrested the next day!)
	Mehdi Mahmoudian was arrested after the disputed presidential elections and He has been sentenced to 5 years in prison. He is in critical condition due to heart attack and lung disease as a result of severe tortures and pressures inside the prison and the prison officials have still not treated him. According to the prison’s General Practitioner, one of his lungs is at the verge of collapse due to infection. Mehdi’s mother interviewed with VOA.
	Seyyed Mostafa Tajzadeh (born 1956), reformist politician, was arrested right after June 12, 2009 Iran’s Presidential election. Tajzadeh served as the Political Vice Minister of the Ministry of Interior of Iran in the government of Mohammad Khatami. The first Iranian elections for the City and Village Councils of Iran happened under Tajzadeh. Fakhrossadat Mohtashamipour, wife of veteran reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh, has been hospitalised days after going on hunger strike and losing consciousness in Evin prison. According to opposition website Kaleme, imprisoned women’s rights activist Fakhrossadat Mohtashamipour was transferred to hospital after going on strike to protest the authorities’ ongoing refusal to allow her to meet with her imprisoned husband Mostafa Tajzadeh.
	Babak Dashab was arrested during the Ashura protests on December 27 2009. He had been previously sentenced to six years in prison which has now been reduced to five years following appeal. He is currently being held in ward 350 of Evin prison. Dashab’s wife has urged officials to release her husband even for a short period of time, in order to alleviate some of the pain endured by their child who has not seen Dashab since his arrest.
	Amir Abotalebi was arrested in December 28, 2009 of last year and was held in temporary detention for 6 months has returned to Evin Prison to serve his 4 year prison sentence. He had spent 77 days in solitary confinement and his 4 year sentence has been upheld by the appeals court.
	Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi, lawyer and university professor, was arrested on 3 April 2011. In 2002, Ghasem Sholeh Saadi wrote a strongly worded open letter to Ayatollah Khamanei, the Supreme Leader, questioning his religious qualification to become the leader and voicing other criticism. He was then arrested and spent 36 days in detention. The Islamic Revolution Court tried him on charges of “insulting the authorities, propaganda against the system and publishing lies with intent to cause anxiety to public opinion” and sentenced him to 1.5 years imprisonment in June 2006. The sentence was upheld in April 2007. His latest detention is likely to be related to that sentence. Sholeh Saadi is a former Member of Parliament of two terms. He was prevented from standing as a presidential candidate in 2009.
	Shahrbanou Amani, a former MP of the 5th and 6th Parliament and a reformist, was arrested on February 13, 2011. Both during and after her time in Parliamentl, Amani was a staunch supporter of women’s rights. She had criticized the "Family Support Bill," which sought to ease restrictions on the practice of polygamy by men. She was an MP representing the people of Urumieh, and prior to her arrest she worked at the State Welfare Organization. Amani was also an advocate and supporter of the One Million Signatures Campaign and its aims. Shahrbanoo Amani, the representative of the fifth and sixth parliament was released from prison on a $150 thousand USD bail. Amani was arrested following the February 14th opposition protests in Iran.
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE PRISONERS OF IRAN!
	FREE THE PRISONERS!