Amir Eslami is an Iranian journalist, lawyer, and editor for 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. Among those detained were journalists affiliated with Majzooban-e-Noor, including Eslami, who was listed by the website as an editor. The website listed Mostafa Daneshjoo, Afshin Karampour, Reza Entessari, Hamid Reza Moradi, and Farshid Yadollahi as directors, and Omid Behroozi and Eslami as editors. Many of the journalists were also lawyers who had represented Gonabadi dervishes.
On January 15, 2013, Eslami 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 placed 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 their coverage of the Gonabadi dervish community. The wife of another Majzooban-e-Noor journalist told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her husband and his colleagues had founded the website so that “people would know what is happening to the dervishes.” She said the charges were unfounded.
In July 2013, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Eslami 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.” 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, Eslami and other Majzooban-e-Noor journalists joined a month-long hunger strike in September 2014 to protest the abusive treatment of Gonabadi dervishes nationwide. An appeals court later reduced Eslami's sentence to three years and six months in prison, with an additional two years and six months suspended.
Eslami was released from Evin Prison on March 4, 2015, along with Afshin Karampour, 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.