Isa Saharkhiz

He is a prominent political and press activist. He served as General Director of Domestic Press in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance during Khatami's presidency. He has been arrested and tried on multiple occasions and has stayed active through hunger strikes, publishing letters, and even filing a complaint against the Supreme Leader.

• <coverage-outsourcing id='6381'> He was Head of Domestic Publications for the Ministry of Culture for 22 months. This period saw one of the least restrictive media activity in Iran following the Islamic Revolution. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6382'> After a long battle with the Judiciary which started in 1999, he was ultimately sentenced to a year-long ban on holding a government position in 2003. This case was largely related to his granting publication rights to the "Zan" newspaper. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6389'> According to Mr. Saharkhiz, Mohseni-Eje'i bit the defendant and threw two sugar cube holders at him during the weekly meeting of Iran's Press Supervisory Board. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6617'> He was arrested and transferred to solitary confinement in Wards 209 and 240 in Evin Prison. He was later transferred to Ward 350. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6383'> He was exiled to Rajaee Shahr Prison without a judicial sentence issued. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='3455'> He was tried after about a year of temporary incarceration since his arrest. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6384'> He penned an open letter to the Head of the Judiciary from Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj in which he asked for a trial session to be held against the Supreme Leader, the Head of State, and the Prosecutor General. He noted that if this request was not heeded in one month, he would take this issue to international organizations through Shirin Ebadi. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6386'> His physical condition was reported to be severe. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6385'> The defendant filed a suit with the US Federal Court against the Nokia Siemens company and their subsidiaries. This suit was filed on the basis that this company had provided the technology and equipment for the Iranian government to surveil and monitor wireless networks and internet activity which led to the arrest and torture of the defendant and other Iranian citizens. As a result of this case, protests were organized outside of this company's facilities in Germany. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6390'> The defendant was tried by Judge Salavati and sentenced to three years in prison and a five-year ban on political or journalistic activity on charges of "Insulting the Supreme Leader" and "Propagating against the system". </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6391'> The Committee of Human Rights Reporters reported that he has been taken to the medical center of Rajaee Shahr Prison for the second time in the same week. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6396'> He penned a letter to Ahmad Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, in which he claimed that the Iranian Government makes a habit of "Slowly and silently killing dissident inmates due to their fear of the prisoners, even behind bars and walls". </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6392'> Keivan Samimi, Issa Saharkhiz, Massoud Bastani, Ali Ajami, Jafar Eghdami, and Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, six political prisoners in Rajaee Shahr Prison, announced that they would begin a hunger strike in solidarity with their colleages in Ward 350 of Evin Prison. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6397'> The Amnesty International organization issued a statement in which they named Issa Saharkhiz as a political prisoner who had "severe medical issues" and requested that the Iranian government tend to these issues. During the years of his incarceration his family repeatedly alerted the authorities about his health and filed complaints to get him the necessary treatment. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6394'> He was sentenced to two additional years in prison. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6387'> He began a hunger strike in protest of the lack of legal attention to his case. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6395'> He was transferred to Tehran Heart Center due to his health condition and was held there for 1.5 years before he was released. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6388'> He was released from prison. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6235'> Ayatollah Khamenei warned of the implementation of the "Infiltration Project" following the JCPOA. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6618'> He was arrested in his residence by seven agents of the IRGC holding a warrant from Branch 12 of the Tehran Judiciary. Afarin Chitsaz, Saman Safarzai, Ehsan Mazandari, and Davoud Asadi were also arrested on this day. The defendant began a hunger strike upon his arrest. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6236'> The IRGC Intelligence Unit issued a statement announcing that during the last week "a few members of the Infiltration Network implemented by western enemy states, who were operating in the media and online" were arrested. On the same day Fars News and Mehr News agencies announced that those arrested were related to an "Infiltration Network". Ebrahim Raeisi called those arrested "American spies and pen-holding mercenaries". In addition to these individuals, other media outlets and officials across the country noted the arrest of this network as well. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6237'> Hassan Rouhani spoke at a cabinet meeting on the anniversary of the occupation of the US embassy in Iran, seemingly in response to the IRGC's operation: > Let's not go and arrest a couple of people for no reason, build a case against them, and then say that we have stopped a line of infiltration . </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6238'> Reporters Without Borders published a harshly-worded statement with regards to the arrests of the journalists : > It is not the first time that journalists in Iran get caught up in the animosities among different political forces in the Islamic Republic. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6239'> According to Jamaran Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Iran's Minister of Justice had expressed optimism in the cases being tried as soon as the case files were completed. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6402'> 90 journalists penned a letter requesting the immediate release of Issa Saharkhiz, Ehsan Mazandarani, Saman Safarzai, and Afarin Chitsaz, four imprisoned journalists. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6240'> The defendant ended his hunger strike. He announced that if his case was not transferred to the court and he was not allowed to be released on bail, he would begin the strike again. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='4746'> His child reported that his father has began a hunger strike in protest of his unlawful incarceration and will not end this strike until he is allowed to leave the prison on bail or his case is reviewed. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6241'> Mehdi Saharkhiz penned a letter to the UN Secretary General in which he described his fathers situation and requested that the UN investigates this issue and gets involved by sending a committee of delegates. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6242'> Seyyed Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatai, the attorney of three of the arrested individuals, reported to Tasnim News: > There was a conflict regarding the charges between the Prosecutor and Investigator which led to the case being transferred to Ward 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court for arbitration. In that court, Judge Salavati agreed with the Prosecutor". According to Mr. Tabatai's remarks, the Investigator (Mr. Hassanzadeh), believed that the defendants should be charged with "Propagating against the system", whereas the Prosecutor believed that the defendants' actions warrant them being charged with "Attempts against national security through assembly and collusion and insulting officials in addition to that charge. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6243'> The defendant began a dry hunger strike. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6244'> Mehdi Saharkhiz posted on his Twitter that the defendant's glasses have been confiscated in prison and that he is being pressured to "confess to something he didn't do". </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6250'> His trial session in Branch 28 of Tehran Revolutionary Court was postponed. This was due to a request from his attorney, Saleh Nikbakht, to further study the case. His other attorney in this case is Mr. Alizadeh Tabatabai. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6245'> Seyyed Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabi, the attorney of Mazandarani, Saharkhiz, and Asadi, reported to Tasnim News that his clients had been indicted and summoned to Branch 28 of Tehran Revolutionary Court. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6247'> He ended his hunger strike. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6246'> The Reporters Without Borders organization issued a statement condemning the irresponsible decision of Iranian officials to not release the defendant on the fourth day of his dry hunger strike. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6248'> HRANA quoted Mehdi Saharkhiz as saying that Issa Saharkhiz is being held in Ward 2A alongside Siamak Namazi. He was transferred to solitary confinement again for an unknown reason and has begun a (wet) hunger strike and is refusing his medicine. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6251'> He ended his hunger strike after being transferred to Quarantine Ward in Evin Prison. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='5462'> It was reported that he was transferred to Ward 8 of Evin Prison and that he ended his hunger strike. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='5497'> It was reported that he was transferred to hospital after his physical condition deteriorated as a result of his long-term hunger strike. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6252'> Mr. Alizadeh Tabatabai participated in an interview with Shargh Newspaper in which he stressed that nobody involved in the case has any news of Afarin Chitsaz's case. He also stated that all of the male defendants in this case are being held in Ward 8 of Evin Prison. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6253'> With him as an exception, all of the other defendants in the case were sentenced to 5-10 years in prison. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6254'> 230 journalists penned a letter to Hassan Rouhani requesting his attention to the case of those arrested as part of the "Infiltration Network". </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6255'> Mr. Alizadeh Tabatabai stated in a conversation with ISNA that of the three cases against the defendant, one is due to security crimes and will be reviewed in Branch 28 of Tehran Revolutionary Court. He noted that the court session had been postponed but that he is not aware of the new date. Tabatabai noted that the case regarding insulting the Head of the Judiciary will be reviewed in Branch 1058 of Government Employee's Court on June 8. The third case, regarding the "publication of lies" charge, will be reviewed in Branch 1057 of Government Employee's Court on June 13. He added that he would be requesting that the two latter cases be tried together. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6773'> He announced that he will begin a three-day hunger strike while in the hospital in protest of the pressures that he has been subjected to </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='6843'> Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, his attorney, announced that his client's charge regarding insulting the Head of the Judiciary has been deemed a political crime and will be reviewed in Tehran Province Criminal Court </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='9242'> Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided by judge Moghiseh sentenced him to 21 months in prison with enforcement of Article 134. He was previously sentenced to 3 years in prison, but judge Moghiseh promised his attorneys, Saleh Nikbakht and Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabayi, that if they do not ask for appeal, he will reduce the sentence to one year. But eventually he only reduced the sentence 3 months. The court had cited a part of Isa Saharkhiz's prison memoir in which he refers to a section of Rajayi Shahr Prison as "Casino Seyed Ali" as an insult to the supreme leader of Iran </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='9844'> In a letter to the chief of judiciary, 132 journalists stated that the charges brought against the defendants of this case "are beneath the noble community of the press" and added "now that one year has passed since our colleagues were sentenced and they can apply for parole according to Article 58 of Islamic criminal law, they are told that you will stay in prison until the 2017 Elections and then a decision will be made about you." They emphasized the implementation "of the directive that you yourself issued and their parole requests to be "urgently" considered" </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='10036'> According to Taslim, the government workers' court has ruled that Isa Saharkhiz's case is of a political crime nature which the province's criminal court 1 has the authority over, but the criminal court 1 chief says this case is not related to political crime </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='10739'> His attorney told ISNA that after disqualification of criminal courts 1 and 2, his case was sent to the supreme court in order to choose a fair court </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='13114'> Kalameh reported that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, in a visit with their children expressed their happiness at Issa Saharkhiz’ ending of his hunger strike and expressed their hope in Mehdi Khazali also ending his strike </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='13677'> Reporters Without Borders published a statement condemning the "oppression and persecution of journalists" in Iran and while providing a report on the conditions of Hengameh Shahidi, Ehsan Mazandarani, Issa Saharkhiz, and Tahereh Riahi, demanded the release of all journalists and citizen journalists from prison </coverage-outsourcing>