Mohammad Najafi

Age: 46

Activism/rights: Human rights lawyer

Status: Evin Prison

Judicial status: 19 years and 6 months imprisonment

Violations: Judicial harassment, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, lack of due process, unfair trial, denial of medical care, prolonged solitary confinement

Mohammad Najafi is a lawyer and human rights activist whose arrests and cases for his professional and human rights activities have earned him a long rap sheet. Since 2018, he has been caught in a web of fabricated cases that overlap and ensure he is kept behind bars for years to come. In January 2018, he was arrested for the revelations he made in his most notorious case, the suspicious death of protester Vahid Heydari in custody, and sentenced to three years imprisonment. In November 2018, Mohammad was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of “aiding an enemy state” for giving interviews to foreign media, two years for “insulting the Supreme Leader with ‘down with dictator slogans'’' and one year for “propaganda for opposition groups and organisations”, by Branch One of the Arak Revolutionary Court. Mohammad’s 13-year sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeals in April 2019. He also has a ten year conviction from a previous case. In a separate case tried at Branch 102 of the Arak Criminal Court in November 2018, he was sentenced to one year in prison for “publishing falsehoods in cyberspace by a phone and computer with the intention to disturb public opinion.” Branch 102 sentenced him to another two years of imprisonment in January 2019, this time for “disturbing the public mind” through an open letter, criticising Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. He was sentenced to a further six months in prison on 7 February 2020 by Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court for making a speech at the home of Gohar Eshghi the mother of blogger, Sattar Beheshti who died as a result of torture in the custody of the Iranian Cyber Police in 2012. Mohammad Najafi suffered a heart attack on 1 August 2021 in Arak Central Prison and was denied medical furlough or specialist treatment outside the prison despite official promises.

He went on medical furlough on 19 December 2021 after going on hunger strike and returned to prison on 11 July 2022 before completing the necessary medical treatment. He was banned from making phone calls on 23 October 2022 after he sent out two messages from prison in support of the nationwide protests. After being furloughed for medical treatment on 19 March 2023, he was informed of new cases brought against him. Branch 106 of the Arak Criminal Court sentenced him to two years imprisonment and 15 million toman fine for "publishing lies" and Branch 2 of the Arak Revolutionary Court sentenced him to a year imprisonment for "propaganda against the system." He was summoned back to serve his sentence on 7 May 2023. He was subsequently transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran, far away from his family in Arak.