A journalist's reaction to the Aegean invitation: I returned to Iran and went to prison for three years

Journalist Kianoush Sanjari, who returned to Iran in 2016 after ten years abroad, wrote in response to the call by the head of Iran's judiciary for Iranians abroad to return that he was arrested after returning to Iran and, after long periods of "solitary interrogation," was sentenced to three years in Evin Prison by court order.

In a series of tweets published on Monday, August 9, he wrote that in addition to the prison sentence, judicial officials forcibly committed him to a mental institution and that he had endured "nine times of unconsciousness and forced electric shock treatment in the mental institution."

Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of Iran's judiciary, said today at a meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council, claiming that "no" Iranian citizen is banned from entering, adding: "People who are concerned that they will be arrested and sent to prison upon entering the border and that their charges will not be investigated can return to the country in coordination with the judicial system and without being arrested."

Referring to these statements, Mr. Sanjari wrote that he currently has to report weekly to the "prisoner monitoring center in Evin Prison," has been banned from leaving for 5 years, and has been deprived of a normal life.

After leaving Iran in 2007, Kianoush Sanjari collaborated with some Persian-language media outlets, such as Voice of America, and after returning to Iran in 2016, he was arrested and sentenced to prison on charges such as "acting against national security" and "propaganda against the system."

Source: Radio Farda