Akbar Ganji

Journalist and columnist Ganji was arrested in 2000 after writing articles about the 1998 Chain Murders, a series of killings in which which more than 80 Iranian dissident intellectuals were murdered or disappeared. After participating in a conference held in Berlin, he was charged with “damaging national security,” and sentenced to ten years in prison and five years of internal exile. His sentence was eventually reduced to six months, however, in July 2001, he was re-sentenced to six years. In 2005, he went on an 80+ day hunger strike. He was released in 2006, and has since lived in exile.