Iranian American journalist Reza Valizadeh, who previously worked for the U.S. Congress-funded Prague-based Radio Farda, the Persian Service of RFE/RL, was detained in September 2024 and is currently serving 10 years in prison.
A former colleague told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), also funded by Congress, that he was taken into custody for cooperating with exile-based Persian media, initially held in pre-trial detention in Ward 209 of Evin prison. The colleague did not specify the exact date of arrest.
Valizadeh returned to Iran in February 2024 after 16 years of working as a journalist in the U.S. in order to take care of his elderly parents, according to exile-based Iran International.
After his return to the country, he wrote on social media that he was coming back “without a letter of trust, even verbally” after attempting to negotiate his return with Iranian intelligence, according to news reports.
Security agents with the Iranian Intelligence Ministry and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) detained and questioned Valizadeh at the airport before conditionally releasing him. He was then repeatedly summoned and interrogated and eventually arrested in Tehran in September.
Judge Iman Afshari of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Valizadeh to 10 years in prison on charges of “collaboration with the hostile government of the United States” in December 2024.
Ahead of that, once Valizadeh appeared before the court on November 16 and again on November 20 each for 30 minutes and his lawyer Mohammad Aghasi wasn’t given the opportunity to represent him. Valizadeh and his lawyer planned to appeal the verdict, according to the report by RadioFarda.
The journalist has endured a severe deterioration of his health when he was transferred from Evin Prison to Fashafouyeh Prison after a deadly strike on Evin during Iran’s 12-day war with Israel. According to his brother, Mohammadreza Valizadeh, who spoke to CPJ in September 2025, Fashafouyeh was “dangerously overcrowded” and lacked adequate medical care, with polluted water, insufficient sanitation, contaminated food, lack of medication, and exposure to smoke and dust.
Valizadeh suffers from chronic asthma, a condition that worsened dramatically under these conditions. He launched a hunger strike on June 7th, 2025 to protest the confiscation of his identity documents, which has left him unable to manage his legal affairs or protect his assets abroad.
On August 9, 2025, he was transferred back to Evin, but “still doesn’t have access to medical support and suffers from multiple pains, and Evin’s officials continue to deny him proper medical care,” his brother told CPJ in November 2025.
In July 2025, when reached out for comment, the U.S. State Department told CPJ that the Trump administration is “closely tracking Mr. Valizadeh’s case” and called on Iran “to immediately release Mr. Valizadeh and all unjustly detained individuals in Iran.” The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not reply to an emailed request for comment.