Iranian activist Kianoosh Sanjari committed suicide to protest what he called the “dictatorship of (Supreme Leader) Khamenei.” in an act he announced on social networks in messages in which he called on Iranians to “overcome slavery.”
The expert journalist and activist stated yesterday afternoon in X that he would commit suicide if four people imprisoned for political reasons were not released and the news of their release was published in the media.
“My life will end after this tweet, pBut let us not forget that we live and die for the love of life, not death,” he said in X Sanjari hours later after the activists’ release did not happen.
“No one should be imprisoned for expressing their opinions. Protest is the right of every Iranian citizen,” he said in his latest message on networks.
Other activists such as Hossein Ronaghi or singer Mehdi Yarrahi confirmed on social networks. Sanjari’s suicide.
“We did everything we could, last night and today, but Kianoosh is gone,” he wrote on X Ronaghi.
The Iranian authorities have not commented about his death.
Jailed in 2016
Activists for whom he called for release are Fateme Sepehari, Nasrin Shakrami, Arsham Rezaei and Tomaj Salehi, all of them convicted for their participation in the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic veil properly in 2022.
Sanjari left Iran in 2007 after years of arrests and went into exile in the United States, where he worked for media opposed to the Islamic Republic.
But he returned to his country in 2016 after his mother fell ill and he was arrested and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Three years later he was admitted to a psychiatric hospitalwhere he reported that he suffered tortures such as electric shocks and was tied to the bed.