Our friend Hamid Tehrani has told us that Omid Reza Misayafi has died in prison in Iran. Omid was sentenced in December to two and a half years in prison for “insulting” Iranian religious leaders.

“(T)he reason for his death,” says Hamid, “has not been announced but he was in very bad psychological condition.”

Considering torture and other types of mistreatment are par for the course for free speech prisoners in Iranian prisons, Omid’s death may well have been a direct result of Iranian government actions. Considering the government usually places bloggers in prison with the most dangerous criminals, his death may only have been an indirect result. Either way, the men of the government of Iran and its prisons have a lot to answer for.

In the meantime, for what it’s worth, our heartfelt condolences go out to Omid’s family. They’ve killed one of us.

Current Article

Omid Reza Misayafi: Events Leading to His Death

By Curt on Mar 19, 2009 in Killed bloggers, Omid Reza Misayafi, Iran, Imprisoned bloggers

Please note that this is not definitive. What it is, is the progression of events that led to his death as far as we can put it together from various sources as of this moment.

* Omid was imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, having been sentenced in February to 2.5 years for “insulting” the country’s leadership for a couple of critical posts on his blog, which was generally focused on music and culture, not politics.

* He had served 41 days in prison prior to making bail in April of 2008.

* He was psychologically distraught, possibly suicidal.

* He had access to medicine, something with a sedative quality.

* On Wednesday, March 18, he took more of the medicine than was safe, possibly on purpose.

* A fellow inmate, a doctor named Hessam Firouzi, alerted prison authorities that Omid’s heart rate was dangerously slow.

* The prison authorities said he was faking and refused to take him to a hospital.

* Omid died.

* Prison authorities stated that he died by suicide.

If this situation is accurate, the prison authorities, and their masters, are responsible for Omid’s death in three ways: by putting him in Evin Prison to begin with, by harassing him and|or allowing him to be harassed, and by refusing him medical help. However, given the death of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, who was said to have died of a stroke and was later discovered to have had a fractured skull, it is quite possible that the circumstances of his death are quite different than in these reports.

I put this scenario together based on these news and nonprofit reports, in addition to our own sources.

***

Update: Maya Norton wrote an excellent post about the suspicious nature of Omid’s death. In it, she quotes from a Radio Free Europe story that in turn quoted Omid’s sister, Masoumeh Misayafi.*

“I even asked him a few days ago how often he took the tablets. He told me: ‘every morning and evening, when it is time to take the tablets, we ask the prison clinic and they give us our tablets.’ I find it hard to believe how he had [so many] tablets as to commit suicide by overdose.”

*She also points out that transliteration of Omid’s name has given us a number of versions, including Misayafi, Mirsayafi, Mir Sayafi and others.

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