On Monday, Ali Amirgholi, a civil activist and a member of the editorial board of the magazine Gam, was arrested by security forces at his private home and transferred to an unknown location.
According to the Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners, On Monday January 14th, 2019, security forces arrested Ali (Amir) Amirgholi in his private residence in Babolsar and transferred to an unknown location.
Human Rights Watch also confirmed the news in its Instagram page, quoting from Amirgholi’s relatives, that the reason for his arrest was his connection and support for recent protests and strikes in Khuzestan.
Despite two days have past, still there is no information on the status of this civil activist.
Sources close to Mr. Amirgholi told the Campaign that he had diabetes and needs injections at least 4 times a day with specific insulin that his physician had given him.
Ali (Amir) Amirgholi is a member of the Editorial Board of the Political, Civic and Cultural Journal “Kham”. The publication has published a series of notes on labor issues in connection with recent protests in Iran.
This civil activist was previously arrested in January 2016 for charges including “insulting the sacred”, “insulting the leadership”, “gathering and colluding for acts against national security”, “disrupting public order by participating in gatherings”, and “propaganda against the system”. He was sentenced to 19 years and 6 months imprisonment by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court under the chairmanship of Judge Salavati.
The court trial of the political prisoner was held on August 3rd, 2016. Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeals, chaired by “Qazi Qamizadeh”, reduced the sentence from 19 years and six months imprisonment to eight years in prison.
According to this ruling, Mr. Amirgholi was acquitted of charges: “gathering and collusion against the regime”, and “disturbing public order”, while he was charged with 5 years of imprisonment for “insulting the Imams”, one year imprisonment for “insulting the Imam and the leadership”, and two years imprisonment for “propaganda against the regime”; a total of eight years. During his imprisonment, Amirgholi’s sentence was reduced to two and a half years for Iranian New Year (Nowruz) amnesty they were granting to him.
He was finally released from Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj on Wednesday, May 17th, 2017, after serving his sentence.