Fariborz Raisdana Released after One Year in Prison

Fariborz Raisdana, 70, was arrested at his home and transferred to Evin Prison on December 19, 2010, after giving an interview to BBC Persian Television about the government’s Targeted Subsidies Program, calling it “a neoliberal” policy.

Fariborz Raisdana, a Tehran University Economics Professor and member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, was released from prison on April 15, 2013. Raisdana, 70, was arrested at his home and transferred to Evin Prison on December 19, 2010, after giving an interview to BBC Persian Television about the government’s Targeted Subsidies Program, calling it “a neoliberal” policy. He was released a month later.

Branch 28 of Tehran Revolutionary Court, under Judge Moghiseh, sentenced Raisdana to one year in prison on May 28, 2011, on charges of “propaganda against the regime through membership in the Writers’ Association” and signing certain political statements, as well as giving interviews in which he was critical of the Islamic Republic’s performance.

He turned himself into Evin Prison on May 21, 2012, after security forces summoned him to begin serving his one-year term.

Fariborz Raisdana was banned from teaching at universities ten years ago because of his critical talks and writings. Over the past several years, he taught as a visiting professor at different universities. Raisdana returned home to his family after he finished his term on Monday, April 15. During his prison stay he shared a cell with other political prisoners, such as lawyer and human rights activist Abdolfattah Soltani. His wife, Azadeh Forghani, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran during several interviews that she was concerned about her husband’s various illnesses in prison.