Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, one of Iran’s best known journalists and a human rights activist, has been repeatedly arrested over the past 20 years for exercising basic civil liberties, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. He is currently serving a sentence at Rajaie Shahr Prison.
Name: Heshmatollah Tabarzadi
Born: 1959, Golpayegan, Iran
Career: Political activist and journalist; secretary-general of the banned party the Democratic Front of Iran and a member of Solidarity for Democracy and Human Rights in Iran; editor-in-chief of Payam-e Daneshjou, Gozaresh-e Rooz and others.
Charges: Propaganda against the regime, conspiracy to harm state security, insulting the Supreme Leader and president of the Islamic Republic and disrupting public order.
Heshmatollah (Heshmat) Tabarzadi has been arrested many times over the past 20 years. Once a staunch supporter of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, in 1995 he became critical of the regime. Between 1995 and 2009 he spent a total of seven years in prison.
Tabarzadi took part in the Green Movement protest rallies following the disputed 2009 presidential election and was arrested on December 28. According to Amnesty International, four individuals claiming to be from the Prosecutor General’s Office carried out the arrest; none of them presented a warrant. They confiscated his laptop and personal belongings and took him first to an unknown location and then to solitary confinement at Evin Prison. After a month and a half of solitary confinement, he was transferred to Cell Block 209, an area of the prison reserved for political prisoners.
In spring 2010, Tabarzadi protested against a series of executions at the prison. Soon after, he was transferred to Katchoui Prison in Karaj and later to Rajaie Shahr Prison, which is known for its inhumane conditions and appalling treatment of inmates. In September 2010, he was found guilty during a trial that took place at Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Pir Abbasi. Judge Pir Abbasi, who in April 2011 was placed under sanctions by the European Union for his violation of human rights, sentenced him to 74 lashes and nine years in prison. He was also banned from participating in any social activity for 10 years. After his appeal, his sentence was reduced to eight years and the flogging was annulled.
During his trial he reported that he had been beaten, threatened with rape and placed under enormous pressure to confess to having received money from abroad.
In April 2011, Tabarzadi and several other prisoners went on hunger strike to protest against prison conditions. When they fell ill, they were not given medical care.
On December 22, 2012, he was granted a one-year leave to treat his medical conditions, which included high blood pressure, osteomalacia (softening of the bones), a heart condition and diabetes.
However, on January 14, 2014 security agents brought him back to prison. On July 16 he was transferred from Rajaie Shahr to Evin and a new charge, activities against national security, was added to his indictment.
In a letter to the United Nations secretary-general and Ahmad Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, 128 journalists and numerous cultural and political figures asked for their help in securing his release. Shaheed’s 2011 report to the UN Human Rights Council references Tabarzadi and his ordeal.
According to some observers, the reason Tabarzadi has received such harsh treatment is because of a letter he sent to Ayatollah Khamenei in March 2009. “The majority of Iranians are unhappy with you,” he told the Supreme Leader, “but security forces crush them.”
Heshmat Tabarzadi is currently serving a sentence at Ward 12 at Rajaie Shahr Prison.
Read IranWire’s interview with Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran
This is part of IranWire’s series Crime: Journalism, a portfolio on the legal and political persecution of Iranian journalists and bloggers, published in both Persian and English.
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