Mostafa Tajzadeh Released After Seven Years in Prison

Mostafa Tajzadeh, the political deputy of the Ministry of Interior during Mohammad Khatami's presidency, has been released from prison on June 14 after serving seven years. According to 'Kalemeh', a website close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, Tajzadeh spent his entire imprisonment in solitary confinement. He was arrested on June 13, 2009, just one day after the elections. He was among dozens of reformist figures tried in court after the 2009 elections on charges of 'soft overthrow'. The Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced Tajzadeh to six years in prison. According to Fars News Agency, in the ruling issued by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati on April 18, 2010, Tajzadeh, a member of the Central Council of the Participation Front and the Mojahedin of the Revolution Organization, was convicted of conspiracy against national security and propaganda against the regime, based on Articles 610 and 500 of the Islamic Penal Code, resulting in a total of six years of imprisonment and an additional ten-year ban from political party and press activities. Reports indicate that since 2010, Tajzadeh has been held separately from other political prisoners in the quarantine section of Evin Prison, spending most of his sentence in solitary confinement. In recent years, he protested his situation by going on 'hunger strikes'. While in prison, Tajzadeh wrote letters of protest to Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, which, according to his wife, led to a new sentence against him. Fakhr al-Sadat Mohtashami, Tajzadeh's wife, reported in 2015 that her husband was sentenced to an additional year in prison for propaganda against the regime due to his letter to Ayatollah Khamenei from within the prison. In an open letter to the Supreme Leader in 2011, Tajzadeh questioned what achievements the regime had to present to Arab countries in light of the 'Arab Spring' and regional developments. His lawyer, Houshang Pourbabayi Pour, stated on Tuesday regarding his client's case that there were penalties of one year and six years in prison in his case, with the six-year sentence including one year and five years, of which five years were considered in this case. The new case against him also included a one-year sentence, which he has already served. He added that after completing his seven-year sentence, a new case was opened against him for absence from leave, resulting in a four-month prison sentence. After an appeal in Branch 48 of the Court of Appeals, he was sentenced to a fine of 200,000 tomans, which is now final.