Omid Mir Sayafi

Omid Mir Sayafi was an Iranian blogger who has died in prison in Iran after being jailed for insulting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Read about it below and see a photo of Sayafi.

Omid Mir Sayafi was about 25-years-old and had been imprisoned in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, Iran for insulting both the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In February 2009, he was sentenced to 30 months in jail for the insults and on Thursday, February 19, 2009, it was reported that he had committed suicide in the prison.

Sayafi’s attorney, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, is pressing for an autopsy and inquiry into the cause of death.

Sayafi was initially arrested and imprisoned in April 2008. He was released on bail, but re-arrested and has been in prison every since that time. He was just sentenced last month.
Other bloggers have been arrested for similar crimes. One blogger was arrested for questioning Khomeini’s ties to Hezbollah. This is all part of Iran’s crackdown on bloggers and internet users that the islamic state deems to be hostile to Iranian authorities and islamic values.

Some of the others who have been arrested and imprisoned include Hoder Derashkhan, a Canbadian-Iranian journalist and blogger detained in Iran last November. Mr Derashkhan’s family is said to have had no news of him since his arrest.

I hope Obama is becoming better versed in diplomacy than he was when he met with the British Prime Minister. Insulting the British with one gaff after the next is one thing, insulting the Iranian leadership would have an entirely different result. I suspect the embarrassment caused by his gaffs with the British and the Irish would pale in comparison to the propaganda value the Iranian government would get out of him during Obama’s much touted ‘dialog’ with them.

Note to Obama: Giving Khamenei and/or Ahmadinejad a gift set of American movies is probably not the right move. Just saying ….

A Facebook campaign has been launched to “Hold Iran Responsible for Death of Blogger Mirsayafi in Prison”.