Humorist Kiumars Marzban Released from Evin Prison

Kiumars Marzban, an Iranian writer and satirist who was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization in August 2018 and sentenced to six years in prison, has been released from Evin Prison after two years and six months behind bars.

A person close to Kiumars Marzban told IranWire’s sister website Journalism is not a Crime that the scribe was released under Articles 38 to 40 of the Islamic Penal Code. Because he has served more than one-third of his sentence, his case can now be closed forever.

Marzban had been living in Malaysia since 2009 and returned to Iran in the winter of 2017. But on August 26, 2018, he was arrested at his home by Revolutionary Guards agents.

The satirist had published the book Dear Aziz [Aziz Jan] in Iran shortly before his arrest and had previously written for a number of Iranian diaspora media including Radio Farda and Manoto. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison by Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in August 2019, on being convicted of "relations with the hostile US government", “insulting the sacred", "insulting the leader", "propaganda against the regime" and "insulting regime officials".

He also received a two-year ban from leaving the country and a two-year ban from appearing in published media and on social media.

The sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal, forcing Kiumars Marzban to serve the maximum sentence of 11 years in prison. But in December 2019, along with several other journalists, he was granted a general amnesty by the Supreme Leader of Iran and five years of his 11-year sentence were commuted.