Said Matinpour

Said Matinpour, a journalist with the weekly Azeri-language newspaper Yarpagh, is among the media workers who have spent the longest time in the jails of Iran. A Tehran revolutionary court sentenced him to eight years’ imprisonment in 2009 for anti-government propaganda and "maintaining relations with foreigners". Two years earlier, he was detained in the notorious Evin prison and was released nine months later after the payment of an exorbitant fine of 500,000 euros. Matinpour has suffered health problems as a result of the first term he served in Evin. Deprived of his freedom and denied medical treatment, he wages a daily battle for his rights and those of the other prisoners and has become a leading figure in the fight against the deplorable conditions in which prisoners of conscience are held.