UPDATE: (9 January 2009) Hedayat Ghazali has been released from prison.

(3 November 2008) Hedayat Ghazali is a psychology student in her final year at Tehran University and head of the authorized publication Roojameh at Tehran University (published in Kurdish). In July 2007, in Sanandaj, while with Sabah Nasri, a writer for Roojameh, he was arrested and taken to the Central Intelligence Office of Sanandaj. In the first week of September 2007, he was taken to Section 209 of Evin Prison. He was then transferred to the Central Prison of Sanandaj in December 2007, only to be taken back to Evin Prison’s Section 209. Based on a letter sent by Ghazali and Nasri while in custody, they were transferred seven times.

According to the letter sent by Nasri and Ghazali from prison, the charges against them were based on their involvement in a gathering celebrating International Mother Language Day and their work for the Roojameh publication. In their letter, they detail being told during interrogations that their arrests could be reduced and their prosecution prevented. Despite being told this, the public prosecutor issued a request for a new punishment against both of them. The first meeting in the investigation of Nasri and Ghazali’s files was done without the presence of their lawyer in an open sight court in late May 2008. After four delays, the case finally went to court on 23 August 2008, in the 13th Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court with Judge Sadat presiding. The charges against Nasri and Ghazli and their subsequent punishments are based on Article 500 in Islamic Penal Code and the public prosecutor sought the most severe penalty. On 24 August 2008, a two-year prison sentence was handed down to both Nasri and Ghazali. This information was also communicated to their lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht. Judge Sadat returned the cases of Nasri and Ghazali saying the case is not under the jurisdiction of his branch. Though the case would be repeatedly sent to court, he would not show up. Despite this, the cases of Nasri and Ghazali took place in that same Branch.