Arash Sadeghi

Age: 46
Activism/rights: Human rights activist
Status: Released on bail
Judicial status: 4 years and 3 months’ imprisonment
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged solitary confinement; lack of a fair trial and due process; denial of medical care;harassment of family members

Arash Sadeghi is a prominent human rights and anti-death penalty activist who was first arrested in 2009 during a student gathering in front of Allameh Tabataba’i University released three months later on bail. In November 2010, his mother died during a raid by IRGC Intelligence agents on their home. The Legal Medicine Organisation determined the cause of death to be “blunt force trauma to the head”. He was subsequently sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and five years’ suspended imprisonment. In September 2014, he was arrested again, and on 21 February 2016, Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security”, “insulting sanctities”, “forming illegal groups”, and “insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic”. The Court of Appeal upheld this sentence and also enforced his previously suspended four-year sentence, bringing his total sentence to 19 years’ imprisonment. On 7 June 2016, he was arrested when he appeared at the Evin Prosecutor’s Office and was transferred to Evin Prison to serve his sentence. On 24 October of the same year, he began a hunger strike in protest against legal violations.²⁶⁸ Despite his deteriorating physical condition, authorities failed to transfer him to hospital. In September 2018, Arash was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer, for which he underwent surgery to remove a tumour from his shoulder. Despite doctors’ recommendations that he remain hospitalised after the operation, security agents returned him to prison, resulting in infection and loss of function in his arm. In May 2021, Arash was released after serving five and a half years of imprisonment. However, two months later, during a gathering in support of protests in Khuzestan, he was violently arrested, and released after several hours.

On 4 October 2022, Arash was arrested again and transferred to Evin Prison. He was temporarily released from Evin Prison on 21 January 2023 pending the completion of judicial proceedings. On 25 January 2023, Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced him to five years and eight months’ imprisonment on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the system”, along with a two-year ban on leaving the country and residing in Tehran (his place of residence).

On appeal, his sentence was reduced to four years and three months’ imprisonment, but he was also sentenced to a two-year ban on leaving the country, membership in political groups, online activity and exile for a period of two years. This sentence was upheld by Branch 36 of the Tehran Province Court of Appeal.

Arash was beaten on the street by IRGC forces from Sarallah Division on 21 June 2025 who left him there despite his critical physical condition.