Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, a 29-year old Iranian blogger and journalist died in Evin Prison in Tehran on March 18. In December, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison for allegedly insulting religious leaders, and engaging in propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mir Sayafi was still awaiting an additional trial for insulting Islam.
According to the Human Rights activists in Iran website, Omid Reza suffered from deep depression in jail and was prescribed medications of which he apparently took too many. Dr. Hesam Firouzi, a jailed doctor and human rights activist says [fa] he urged prison authorities to send Omid Reza to a hospital outside prison but that prison doctors refused, and would not perform even basic tests.
A campaign has been launched in Facebook to “Hold Iran Responsible for Death of Blogger Mirsayafi in Prison”.
Blogger Mojtaba Saminejad says [fa] Omid Reza had communicated to him two days before his death that he would possibly be allowed to exit the prison in the coming days to visit a hospital. The blogger says he was led to expect better news than this.
In an interview [fa] with Human Rights activists in Iran a few days before going to prison, Omid Reza said his blog was a cultural blog and not intended to be insulting.
Here is a video once filmed by Omid Reza in Tehran. It is the funeral of Iranian archeologist and academic Parviz Varjavand.
63 comments
It seems more and more writers of all sorts in many countries are being prosecuted and imprisoned for speaking out. What’s worse is that some mean no offense to the very things they are purported to have insulted. Turkey, too, has had a myriad of prosecutions of writers, journalists and newspapers and book publishers in the past two years increasing more and more especially under the Erdogan government. Sad times, for sure.
There is nothing more devastating and difficult to bear than being ashamed of the government that has enslaved my native land of Persia and there is nothing more frustrating than not being able to do anything practical to bring about a meaningful change to free one’s people from the clutches of the worst dictatorships they have been subject to for decades.
During the Shah regime, I lost a nephew to a secular dictatorship. During the present regime I have lost two nephews, a niece and her husband all in the name of God which makes it infinitely more unbearable.
I wonder if the leaders of the so called Islamic Republic of Iran which at the outset seemed to majority of people from all walks of life to be the silver lining of a bright future understand the phrase “In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate” as the opening phrase of 113 of the 114 chapters of the Qur’an?
I wonder if the leaders of the so called Islamic Republic of Iran who at the outset promised the paradise of a democracy are familiar with the verse in the Qur’an that killing an innocent human being is comparable to killing the entire humanity.
Omid Reza’s family should take solace in the fact that he is now in spirit more alive than ever before because myriad of human being have become familiar with his name and his courage that have become mirrors reflecting the ugly face of a theocratic dictatorship that will not and cannot last.
In contrast, a true martyr never dies.
Iranian president, and liders, are so idiots !!!
They aren’t humant ! They are like a monkeys….