Iranian journalist Mohammad Zare-Foumani is serving a 12-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison on anti-state charges over his coverage of nationwide protests in 2022.
Zare-Foumani is the publisher of state-run newspaper Sedaye Eslahat, where he also serves as a columnist. The newspaper covered protests following the September 16, 2022 death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, after morality police arrested her for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress law. Zare-Foumani also commented on the protests on his Instagram page and on X.
In a video on Instagram, the journalist, who is also a cleric, describes being summoned to the Intelligence Ministry on October 9, 2022. Text accompanying the video indicates that he was taken to ward 209 of Evin prison in Tehran and allowed to make a brief phone call to his family before being placed in solitary confinement.
On November 13, 2022, Zare-Foumani was tried in the Special Clerical Court, a court independent of Iran’s judiciary under the direct supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Zare-Foumani was tried in the clerical court due to his work as a cleric, but the charges against him related to his journalistic activity.
On December 13, 2022, the journalist was sentenced to 12 years in prison, a cash fine, and domestic exile to Kerman province for “colluding against national security, false news, and disturbing national order,” according to a post on his Instagram account.
According to a video posted in November 2023 on the account, Zare-Foumani was diagnosed with colon cancer, had undergone two surgeries within three months and had received multiple rounds of chemotherapy.
CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York in late 2024 for comment on the case of Zare-Foumani and other imprisoned Iranian journalists but received no response.