Kamyar Fakoor
Age: 30
Activism/rights: Journalist
Status: Released
Judicial status:
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of a fair trial and due process; media censorship; denial of medical care; denial of visits; forced transfer to Ghezelhesar Prison
Kamyar Fakoor is an environmen and economics journalist, labour rights activist, poet, rapper and one of the signatories of the campaign in support of the Ahvaz Steel workers and Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers. He has been summoned and arrested on multiple occasions. In 2019, Kamyar was arrested during Labour Day demonstrations outside the Parliament building and released several days later. He was violently arrested at pensioners' protest outside the Ministry of Labour on on 7 March 2021 and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison. He was released on bail on 17 March. On 2 November, Kamyar was sentenced to two years and eight months imprisonment, 50 lashes and a 15 million tomans fine by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, on charges of “propaganda against the system and spreading lies to disturb public opinion and order.” The sentence was suspended on conditions including “obtaining permission from a judicial official to travel abroad, participating in counselling sessions to control excitement and prevent hopelessness at the Mavay Institute of Psychology in Qom, reporting any job or residence changes and a ban on social and political activities on social media.”
In April 2022, he was rearrested and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the system”. After serving two months in prison, his case was closed after being included in the mass prison amnesties. During the “Woman, Life, Freedom” nationwide protests, he was arrested with his wife, WHRD Sarvenaz Ahmadi, after their home was raided on 6 November 2022. Despite bail having been set and his need for treatment for a lumbar disc condition, he was transferred to Evin Prison in December to serve his sentence.
Fakour was released on 8 February 2023; however, one month later Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the system”. On appeal, his sentence was reduced to eight months’ imprisonment.
However, he was re-arrested while visiting jailed teacher Mohammad Habibi's family with other activists on 28 April and his sentence was implemented. Kamyar was transferred to Ghezelhesar Prison by force on 3 September where he was held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions with death row prisoners awaiting the gallows. On the same day, his lawyer announced that a new case had been opened against him and Jafar Ebrahimi for charges of “disrupting public order and peace, insulting prison officials and officers” by Branch 3 of Evin court. Following a group hunger strike, he was transferred back to Evin Prison on 27 September.
After serving eight months in prison, his two-year suspended sentence from the 2021 case was implemented in December 2023.
Kamyar was released on licence from Evin Prison on 23 October 2024 and he served the remainder of his sentence outside prison.