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A former journalist and well-known human rights activist has killed himself in Iran, in protest at what he referred to as the dictatorship of Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a put up on social media, Kianoosh Sanjari mentioned he would take his personal life if 4 political prisoners weren’t launched by 19:00 native time (16:30 BST) on Wednesday.
When authorities didn’t free the prisoners, he posted a picture taken from excessive up overlooking a busy junction within the capital Tehran on X.
“My life will end after this tweet,” he wrote at 19:20, including: “I wish that one day Iranians will wake up and overcome slavery.”
“No one should be imprisoned for expressing their opinions.
“Protest is the precise of each Iranian citizen.”
His death was confirmed hours later by fellow activists.
Sanjari was a vocal critic of Iran’s leaders and advocate for democracy.
On Wednesday morning, he posted an ultimatum on X, demanding the release of four political prisoners.
“If Fateme Sepehari, Nasreen Shakrami, Tomaj Salehi and Arsham Rezaei aren’t launched from jail by 19:00 as we speak … I’ll finish my life in protest towards the dictatorship of Khamenei and his companions.”
All four were arrested for their support and involvement in the wave of unprecedented protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in 2022 after being detained by Iran’s morality police.
Sanjari was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for his political activism between 1999 and 2007.
He left Iran in 2007 and received asylum in Norway, before joining US broadcasting service Voice of America’s Persian service in Washington DC.
He returned to Iran in 2016 to be along with his mother and father, and was arrested and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in Evin prison, the place political prisoners are sometimes imprisoned.
He was released on bail in 2019 on medical grounds, and subsequently taken to a psychiatric hospital.
He told local media he was given electric shocks, chained to a bed and injected with substances.
“Kianoosh Sanjeri isn’t just a reputation, it’s a image of years of ache, resistance and wrestle for freedom,” freedom of speech activist Hossein Ronaghi posted on X.
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