Mostafa Daneshjoo 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 May 18, 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 Daneshjoo, who was listed by the website as one of its directors. The website also listed Afshin Karampour, Reza Entessari, Hamid Reza Moradi, and Farshid Yadollahi as directors, and Omid Behroozi and Amir Eslami as editors. Many of the journalists were also lawyers who had represented Gonabadi dervishes.
On January 15, 2013, Daneshjoo 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 their coverage of the Gonabadi dervish community. Sedigheh Khalili, the wife of imprisoned journalist and lawyer Hamid Reza Moradi, 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." She said the charges against the journalists were unfounded.
In July 2013, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Daneshjoo 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 Daneshjoo for five years from membership to groups, parties, and sects, and from activities in publications, the media, and virtual space.
During his imprisonment, Daneshjoo joined other Majzooban-e Noor journalists in a month-long hunger strike in September 2014 to protest the abusive treatment of Gonabadi dervishes nationwide. He also suffered from severe asthma and heart disease and was repeatedly denied specialized medical treatment while in prison.
Daneshjoo was released from Evin Prison on May 17, 2015, after completing the custodial portion of his reduced sentence.