Iranian Journalist Freed From Jail After Saying He Feared ‘Gradual Murder’
Political activist and journalist Keyvan Samimi (aka Samimi Behbahani) has been freed from prison after he said Iranian authorities were slowly killing him.
Political activist and journalist Keyvan Samimi (aka Samimi Behbahani) has been freed from prison after he said Iranian authorities were slowly killing him.
Samimi's lawyer, Mosafa Nili tweeted late Tuesday local time that after a report by a doctor's report that his health was deteriorating, he was freed from prison
In a letter from Semnan prison published earlier in the day, Samimi explained he had been transferred to Semnan while suffering from heart problems and facing stress.
"It seems that these pressures may never end,” he wrote, suggesting he was being submitted to “burnout or gradual murder.”
Samimi was sent to Semnan from Gohar Dasht Prison in Karaj, also known as Rajai Shahr, where most inmates are common criminals including murderers. He was originally in Evin prison, Tehran, after being sentenced to three years in 2020 over his coverage of labor unrest the previous year.
According to the Iranian Writers' Association, Samimi was likely sent to Semnan, seen as a form of internal exile, because he described as murder the death of jailed writer Baktash Abtin from Covid-19 complications after he was allegedly denied timely treatment early in January.
Last week, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed concern for the lives of three jailed activists, including Samimi, who it said had been transferred to jails known for “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in a practice often used to deliberately break the resistance of prisoners of conscience.”
