Hossein Ramezanpour

Age: 44
Activism/rights: Trade unionist teacher
Status: Released on bail
Judicial status: New case pending
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and attention; lack of a fair trial and due process; prolonged detention; torture and ill-treatment during detention

Hossein Ramezanpour, a teacher, member of the board of directors of the North Khorasan Teachers’ Union, and member of the Teachers’ Assembly, has faced security and judicial pressure because of his activism. In 2017, when security institutions and the Cyber Police (FATA) repeatedly summoned him because of criticism expressed on social media. In 2018, after participating in teachers’ protest, Hossein was arrested and interrogated in solitary confinement for three weeks. In 2019, in two separate cases, he was sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment and two sentences of 74 lashes each (148 lashes in total). One of the 74-lash sentences was immediately carried out, while the prison sentence, later reduced to 2 years, was not immediately enforced.

Because of his support for public protests on social media and his union activities, Hossein was sentenced in 2021 by Branch 1 of the Enforcement of Sentences Office of the Bojnord Prosecutor’s Office to 1 year’s imprisonment on charges of “spreading falsehoods” and “propaganda against the system”. He was transferred to Bojnourd Central Prison in February of that year, and conditionally released around 6 months later. In the same year, the Administrative Violations Board of the Ministry of Education opened a case against him and ordered his one-year internal exile to Maneh and Samalqan County in North Khorasan Province.

During the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022 and the intensification of security pressure on civil society, his previous 2-year prison sentence was reactivated. In March 2023, IRGC Intelligence agents violently arrested him during a school ceremony, in front of students and teachers and at gunpoint, and transferred him to Bojnourd Central Prison to serve the earlier sentence. After serving half of his sentence, his imprisonment was converted into a licenced release in October 2023, and following the suspension of the final 4 months of his sentence, Hossein Ramezanpour was released from prison in late October 2024.

In April 2025, Hossein was sentenced by Branch 105 of the Bojnourd Criminal Court to 2 years’ imprisonment on charges of “spreading falsehoods with intent to disturb public opinion”. The sentence was based on his online activities in 2022, although the case had previously been declared closed following the issuance of a general amnesty. During the January 2026 protests, Hossein was arrested in Bojnourd on 9 January 2026 and held incommunicado for 21 days in solitary confinement in the detention centre of the Bojnourd Intelligence Department. 

Hossein was temporarily released from Bojnuord Central Prison in late March 2026 after posting bail of 1 billion tomans (approximately €13,000).