Kianoush Sanjari commits suicide in protest against political prisoners
Kianoush Sanjari committed suicide in protest of the conditions of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic.
Kianoush Sanjari, a journalist, human rights activist, and former Voice of America colleague who lived abroad for years, protested the conditions of political prisoners after returning to Iran, and ultimately ended his life last week in protest of this issue.
A day before his suicide, he posted on the social network X, writing: "If Fatemeh Sepehri, Nasrin Shakerami, Toumaj Salehi, and Arsham Rezaei are not released from prison by 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 13, 1403, and the news of their release is not published on the judiciary's news website, I will end my life in protest against the dictatorship of Khamenei and his associates."
Reports and videos published yesterday and today about Kianoush Sanjari, inform of his suicide by jumping from the porch of Charso Bazaar in Tehran. Some of Kianoush's friends issued a statement on Monday, sharing a video of his last moments. They announced that they had shown the original and complete version of the video to Kianoush's family, and that the authenticity of its content and events had also been confirmed by his family.
After the publication of two screenshots of videos recorded by the security cameras of the Chaharsu building that captured the moments of Kianoush's suicide, but doubts were raised about those images, his friends decided to publish Kianoush's videos.
In a statement they issued regarding Kianoush's suicide, they wrote: "Although this document is made available to the public, it should be noted that publishing such documents at a time when the investigation is still ongoing not only disrupts the principled and scientific process of the investigation and the hierarchy of verifications, but also poses a serious challenge to the physical and psychological security and even the privacy of witnesses and people who are helping to find the truth, all of whom are in Iran and within the reach of the repressive institutions of the Islamic Republic. Perhaps this kind of pressure and the atmosphere of false distrust related to the cyber activities of security institutions will discourage them from continuing their cooperation and disrupt the investigation."
They pointed out that it is the right of the people to know accurate information and added: "While respecting the public's right to know the truth and the free flow of information, we ask that you be patient and, while being prepared to thwart Kianoush's insane security project, which was addressed in the previous statement, devote your energy to the goal and intention for which Kianoush sacrificed his life."
As stated in the second statement, the investigation of our friends and comrades of Kianoush is still ongoing and the results of this investigation will be published in detail, along with the collected evidence. The Iranian government, like all of us, was aware of Kianoush’s decision. Although it had the opportunity to intervene and prevent his protest death, it knowingly and passively watched his death. If the Islamic Republic had not been in place, Kianoush and other immortals of the homeland would be alive now, and the criminal Islamic regime is responsible for the death of Kianoush the Lion-hearted in every way.” It should be noted that Ahmad Batebi, Sepideh Pour-Aghaei, Ardeshir Zarezadeh, Behrouz Javid-Tehran, Farzad Hamidi, Abbas Khorsandi, Kaveh Shirzad, Bahman Sadeghi-Noor, Kourosh Sehati, Hamid Alizadeh, Mehrdad Lohrasbi, Saeed Kalanaki, Manouchehr Mohammadi, and Reza Mobin are among the signatories of the aforementioned statement.
