Journalist and blogger Amir Hadi Anvari was given a suspended three-year sentence for “propaganda against the regime”. He was the first reporter after the 2009 election and its violent aftermath to question President Ahmadinejad on warrantless arrests by the authorities.
Name: Amir Hadi Anvari
Born: 1984, Tehran, Iran
Career: Journalist and blogger; reported on political issues and the economy for Ham Mihan, Shargh, Etemad-e Melli, Arman, Kargozaran, Ayandeh News website and Asr-e Iran publications.
Charges: Propaganda against the regime.
Amir Hadi Anvari was arrested on December 7, 2010 outside his house. He spent ten days in solitary confinement and was then released on bail.
This was not Anvari’s first brush with the Iranian judiciary and authorities. In 2007, he wrote a critical report about Iran’s Cultural Heritage Organization. Following a complaint by its director, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, he was summoned to court. His trial was set for February 2009 but he refused to appear, claiming the charges were baseless. Despite his absence, the trial went ahead, issuing a not-guilty verdict.
Soon after, he reported on Iranian citizens who illegally sold their blood outside the country. The Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization filed a complaint against him, but he was again acquitted.
In February 2010, he received considerable media attention after he challenged the then President Ahmadinejad on live television about warrantless arrests carried out by the Intelligence Ministry. This was the first time a reporter had dared to question Ahmadinejad on television after the 2009 presidential election and its violent aftermath. In 2013, Anvari also challenged the government over cuts to subsidies and skyrocketing prices.
The last time he was arrested Anvari was charged with propaganda against the regime. He was tried at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Salavati, who sentenced him to three years in prison but suspended the sentence. The appellate court upheld the sentence.
Anvari now writes about economy for the Jahan-e Sanat newspaper (The World of Industry), which is published in Tehran.
For more information, visit Journalism is Not a Crime, documenting cases of jailed journalists in Iran.
This is part of IranWire’s series Crime: Journalism, a portfolio on the legal and political persecution of Iranian journalists and bloggers, published in both Persian and English.
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