Afshin Karampour is an Iranian journalist, lawyer, and director of Majzooban-e Noor, a website that reports on Iran's Gonabadi dervish community. He was arrested on September 5, 2011, during a crackdown on the dervish religious minority and released from prison on March 3, 2015, after serving a reduced sentence.
Authorities arrested at least 30 Gonabadi dervishes after a confrontation with plainclothes agents in Kavar, Fars Province. On September 4, 2011, Karampour and Majzooban-e Noor editor Amir Eslami were arrested after arriving at the Kavar governor's office to negotiate the release of detained dervishes. Other Majzooban-e Noor journalists and lawyers, including Mostafa Daneshjoo, Reza Entessari, Hamid Reza Moradi, Farshid Yadollahi, and Omid Behroozi, were also detained. Karampour was listed by the website as one of its directors. Many of the detained journalists were also lawyers who represented Gonabadi dervishes.
On January 15, 2013, Karampour and the other Majzooban-e Noor journalists refused to attend their trial, saying the Revolutionary Court was not qualified to hear their case. They were held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison and charged with "publishing falsehoods," "creating public anxiety," "propaganda against the state," and "acting against national security."
Majzooban-e Noor said authorities targeted the journalists to silence coverage of the Gonabadi dervish community. The wife of another imprisoned Majzooban-e Noor journalist told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the website had been established so that "people would know what is happening to the dervishes," and described the charges as unfounded.
In July 2013, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Karampour to seven years and six months in prison on charges of "forming the illegal Majzooban-e Noor group with the intent to disrupt national security," "propaganda against the state," "insulting the supreme leader," and "participation in disrupting public order." He and his co-defendants again refused to appear in court. The court also banned Yadollahi for five years from membership to groups, parties, and sects, and from activities in the publishing industry, the media, and online.
During his imprisonment, Karampour joined other Majzooban-e Noor journalists in a month-long hunger strike in September 2014 to protest the treatment of Gonabadi dervishes nationwide. An appeals court later reduced his sentence to three years and six months' imprisonment, with an additional two years and six months suspended.
Karampour was released from Evin Prison on March 3, 2015, along with Amir Eslami, Farshid Yadollahi, and Omid Behroozi. According to Majzooban-e Noor, the four had completed the custodial portion of their reduced sentences by February 17, 2015, but remained imprisoned for more than 10 additional days before their release.