Journalism is Not a Crime: Nima Safar-Soflaei

Citizen journalists, writers, activists and artists are routinely arrested and jailed in Iran for the simple crime of speaking out. Although some of the more dramatic stories occasionally hit the headlines, we rarely hear about these people's detentions or see their names published in English. IranWire's sister project Journalism is Not a Crime aims to change that, highlighting their stories and work, until the day when none of us know the names of journalists behind bars in Iran — because they have all been set free.

Name:

Nima Safar-Soflaei 

 

Court’s Ruling:

Eight months in prison

 

Current Status:

Freed

 

Professional Record:

Poet, writer and civil society activist

 

Charged With:

Actions against national security

Propaganda against the state

 

Place of Birth:

Tabriz

 

Nima Safar-Soflaei is a poet, writer and civil society activist who was born in Tabriz; he currently lives in Gorgan, in the province of Golestan. He has been arrested and jailed several times.

Safar-Soflaei’s most recent jail sentence was eight months in prison on charges of “propaganda activity against the state” for posts on social media. On December 31, 2019, Safar-Soflaei was serving his jail term in Gorgan Prison. He was later granted leave from prison and later was included on the judiciary’s Iranian New Year pardons list. He was released from prison with a pardon in March 2020.

Safar-Soflaei’s first arrest occurred on September 14, 2012, along with Habib Mousavi Bibalbani; both were members of a Gorgan poetry associations. Reporters Without Borders said that, after arresting these two individuals, security agents raided both their homes, confiscating personal belongings including personal computers.

The arrest of both Safar-Soflaei and Bibalbani was part of a wider wave of arrests of famous poets that began in 2011. Some of the poets arrested during this time included Hila Sedighi, Mohammad Reza Aali Payam and Mostafa Badkoubaei.

Several years later, Safar-Soflaei, who was working as a writer, as well as his wife Elaheh Souroushnia, a translator and blogger, and Roozbeh Gilasian, a researcher, were all arrested and interrogated as part of new security-related charges.

The accusations against the three were membership of a social group in Gorgan with alleged intentions to commit “actions against the national security of the country” and “spreading falsehoods on the Internet.”

The idea of setting up the social group was first proposed by Roozbeh Gilasian. He launched a public Facebook page called “Thursdays in Gorgan” for Gorgani youth. Gilasian suggested get-togethers every Thursday to discuss various issues. He shared a list of issues that could be chosen by the Gorgani youth for their discussions; these included corruption, violence, prostitution, team work, revenge, execution, suicide and other topical social issues.

Nima Safar-Soflaei was also active on the Facebook page. The meetings eventually led to the arrest of Safar-Soflaei, his wife Elaheh Souroushnia and Gilasian after a complaint was filed by the Gorgan prosecutor.

One informed source told Journalism is Not a Crime that, concerning the accusations against the participants of the Gorgan social group, “In their indictment, writing and expressing beliefs online and engaging in friendly discussions are cited as accusations in their case.”

The three were tried along with fifteen other of the Gorgan group in Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Golestan, presided over by Hojjatullah Ghorbani, over the course of multiple court sessions.

Safar-Soflaei was sentenced to one year in prison – this was later reduced to eighty days in the Court of Appeals. He was informed of this sentence in September 2017. In February 2018, Safar-Soflaei was transferred to Gorgan Prison so that he could serve his prison sentence. He was released from prison on April 15, 2018, after completing the full sentence.

Less than a year later, in March 2019, Safar-Soflaei had a new legal case filed against him in Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Gorgan. He was sentenced to eight months imprisonment and was not given access to a lawyer for the duration of his trial.

On July 28, 2019, the Court of Appeals in Golestan informed Safar-Soflaei that the lower court’s verdict had been upheld.

According to the summary of the court case issued by the lower court, Safar-Soflaei had been accused of “propaganda activity against the state.” The HRA News Agency reported that evidence to support the charge was content written by Safar-Soflaei on his personal pages on social media as well as his participation in a game of Mafia [a muder-mystery party game] which the judge called “a security-related game.”

On August 7, 2019, the Iranian Writers’ Association published a statement that protested against Safar-Soflaei’s eight month prison sentence. The Association stated that the such sentences was an example of a “fabricated legal case” and was meant to intimidate and silence independent writers and artists. The Iranian Writers’ Association demanded the repeal of the judgement against Safar-Soflaei and a number of other similar judgments.

On August 10, 2019, approximately two hundred poets, writers and artists signed an open letter which condemned Safar-Soflaei’s prison sentence and demanded its repeal.

A portion of the statement said: “Nima Safar-Soflaei is a multi-faceted human being. He doesn’t just write poetry, he is an animal rights activists, he is an opponent of the death penalty, he will talk to anyone who wants to have a conversation. This is the same individual who promotes literary meetings and discussions in his hometown of Gorgan. Nima is a writer and critic but nonetheless supports the Islamic Republic. We, poets, artists and writers, all call for the repeal of the eight-month prison sentence against Nima Safar-Soflaei. We request that civil rights and freedom of expression, thought and writing be respected, as Martyr Mohammad Mokhtari said, “without any limitations, restrictions or exceptions”. Freedom and civil rights include the freedom to opposition and expressing ideas other than those of the government. What is freedom if not this! What will future generations say? Nima Safar-Soflaei has been imprisoned for expressing his thoughts and ideas.”

Safar-Soflaei was arrested on December 31, 2019, after appearing at the Gorgan Justice Department. He was then transferred to the Gorgan City Prison to serve his sentence.

HRA News Agency later reported that Safar-Soflaei later granted temporary leave from prison – and that he was informed on April 20, 2020 that he was to be released from prison early as part of Iran’s New Year pardons.