Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki is free!

Good news from Iran! Yesterday, the blogger Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was released. 

If you know my previous posts, you might remember that I wrote twice about him. You find my two other articles here and here. I am delighted that the third time it is a post with good news – even though it is currently only a conditional release.

I will recapitulate in this post a little bit of the background of his case and write about the developments which resulted in his release. 

1. Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was arrested in December 2009. One of the reasons was his membership in Proxy Iran, a committee against censorship which helped Iranians to circumvent censorship in the Internet.

He was held in solitary confinement, tortured and forced to confess.

Hossein was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

• 10 years for his membership in Proxy Iran
• 4 years for insulting President Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader
• 1 year for propanda against the regime

During his detention and as consequences of torture and medical neglect he developed multiple health problems which lead to the loss of one kidney.

2. On 17 June 2015 Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was given furlough on medical grounds. In January he was ordered back to prison, against the recommendation of the doctors who said that he still required medical treatment outside of the prison. On 20 January 2016 Hossein returned to prison. He did so because otherwise a very large bail would have been confiscated.

3. After Hossein’s return to prison, the authorities refused to provide him with medication or to transfer him to a hospital, even so his health deteriorated further. His mother said in an interview that the prison doctors had stated that the prison hospital did not have the proper equipment for his treatment and that he had to be transferred to a hospital outside the prison. She also mentioned that he did not even receive the medication the family paid for and provided to the authorities.

As protest against his treatment, in particular the refusal to transfer him to a hospital and the unfair imprisonment Hossein started a hunger strike on 26 March 2016. His family and his friends were very worried about this development, because he said he would not stop until his situation changed. Laleh, a very close friend of him, warned him against the possible consequences of a hunger strike. She said to the website “Journalism is not a crime”:

“His response was that the status quo is a slow death sentence anyway. A hunger strike will speed things up, he said, but at least he wouldn’t go without a fight.”

4. On 4 May, after 105 nights in prison and 38 days of hunger strike Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was released from prison.

Laleh mentioned in a tweet that he lost a lot of weight after his hunger strike in prison and will soon be taken to hospital. “Journalism is not a crime” reports that it was not an unconditional release, but he was released against a heavy bail pending a review of his case.

Laleh said to the website “Journalism is not a crime”:

“I hope authorities do the right thing and reduce his unjust 15-year sentence so he does not have to serve any more time. … According to the law, he is eligible for a pardon because of his health.”

5. The release of Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki is very good news indeed and I am happy and relieved about this development, but it is not yet time to stop campaigning for him.

Please continue to tweet for him and write to Iran, until they release him unconditionally and without the threat of calling him back whenever they decide to do so.

6. I want to add two additional information (on 17 May 2016):

Hossein clarified in the meantime in a tweet that he is not free, but that he was only released on a 30 day furlough until 4 June. Then he has to return to prison.

I also want to share a link to a post which was again translated by Laleh. The English translation is on her blog: “Hossein Ronaghi expresses concern for teacher Mahmoud Beheshti on hunger strike“. Hossein writes about the Iranian teacher Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi who was sentenced to several years in prison, because he tried to improve the conditions for teachers and students. He was sentenced after a trial which lasted less than eight minutes. He started a hunger strike on 20 April 2016 to protest against his sentence. Mahmoud Beheshti was in the meantime released (after 20 days of hunger strike), but Hossein’s post is still moving to read, because he describes in it also his own experience of a hunger strike.