Sepehr Ebrahimi, Crime: Journalism

Sepehr Ebrahimi was given an eight-year sentence at Evin Prison for taking part in an online debate on religious issues. He was eventually pardoned and released.

Name: Sepehr Ebrahimi

Career: Citizen Journalist and blogger

Charges: Propaganda against the regime, insulting the sacred, activities against national security, cooperating with counter-revolutionaries, insulting the Prophet Mohammad and waging war against God.

The Intelligence Ministry’s Cyber Police arrested Sepehr Ebrahimi on July 17, 2010 in connection with his participation in an online forum about religious issues.

He was taken to ward 209 of Evin Prison, where he was pressured and beaten into confessing he had participated in online activities that went against the Islamic Republic at the behest of some Western European embassies.

Ebrahimi’s trial was held on January 13, 2012 at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Moghisei. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. On January 21, the appellate court upheld the sentence but he was eventually pardoned and released on a Muslim holy day on August 15, 2012.

For more information, visit Journalism is Not a Crime, documenting cases of jailed journalists 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.

Please contact [email protected] with comments, updates or further information about cases. 

Read other cases in the series:

Jila Baniyaghoob

Isa Saharkhiz

Ali Ashraf-Fathi 

Mojtaba Pourmohsen

Mahsa Jozeini