Mehran Raouf
Age: 70
Activism/rights: Workers' rights activist
Status: Released under electronic ankle tag monitoring
Judicial status: 7 years and 6 months’ imprisonment
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; denial of medical care; prolonged solitary confinement; denial of access to a lawyer; lack of fair trial and due process; unfair trial; denial of furlough
Mehran Raouf, a workers' rights activist and English teacher, is a British-Iranian dual national who was arrested on 17 October 2020 after security agents raided his home in Tehran following his trip to Iran. After searching the house, security agents confiscated books and other personal belongings, including his computer and mobile phone, and transferred the workers' rights activist to Ward 2A of Evin Prison.
In a telephone call from prison, Mehran stated that he was being interrogated on charges of “affiliation with a communist group” and had been deprived of the right to an independent lawyer. In protest against these conditions, he went on hunger strike in April 2021 despite his old age and illness. After approximately eight months in solitary confinement, he was transferred to the general ward of Evin Prison on 13 June 2021. In August 2021, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Afshari, sentenced him to 10 years and 8 months’ imprisonment on charges of “participation in administering an illegal group and propaganda activities against the system.” On appeal, his sentence was reduced to seven years and six months' imprisonment.
After a group of prisoners were released under the “general amnesty” in 2023, Mehran wrote a letter from prison protesting discrimination against dual nationals and their exclusion from the amnesty list, and condemned the Islamic Republic’s use of dual-national prisoners.
Following Israel’s attack on Evin Prison on 22 June 2025, Mehran was transferred to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary in handcuffs and shackles. The 70-year-old political prisoner, who suffers from diabetes, chronic sinusitis and severe dental pain, was held in poor physical condition and without access to medical care and treatment. During this period, he was not granted a single day of furlough and was also deprived of family visits. Mehran was returned to Evin Prison in August and was eventually granted furlough for only 3 days on 27 December 2025.
He was released from Evin Prison on 8 July 2026 after nearly six years of imprisonment, under electronic ankle tag monitoring.