Two Jailed Top Science Students Say ‘Iran Will Be Freed’

In a letter published on the occasion of the third anniversary of their detention on social media, Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi said "After the sufferings and hardships of these years, we are sure of the arrival of moments of true happiness … and the realization of a free Iran."

Political prisoners in Iran often find ways to send messages from prison using connections through other detainees.

"Like all the young people who were killed in the streets, we have no desire but the freedom of Iran," they added.

The two Sharif University award-winning science students were arrested April 2020, Amnesty International reported at the time, with a judiciary spokesman announcing explosive devices had been found in their homes and that they had links to “counter-revolutionary groups.”

“The authorities violated their right to be presumed innocent by publicly accusing them of ties to ‘counterrevolutionary’ groups apparently based on their families’ real or perceived association” with the opposition group MEK, Amnesty wrote in November 2021.

Moradi and Younesi had been convicted of ‘corruption on earth’ and ‘conspiracy against the [political] system.’

In a letter January, several Nobel Laureates and leading academics asked United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to petition Iran over Moradi and Younesi.

Younesi won the gold medal in the International Astronomy Olympiad in 2018 in China, and Moradi was an award-winning physics student.