Ali-Akbar Sa'idi Sirjani

Ali-Akbar Sa'idi Sirjani (PerB|علی اکبر سعیدی سیرجانی, b. December 12 , 1931 in Sirjan - d. November 28, 1994) was an Iranian writer, poet and journalist who died in prison under mysterious circumstances after having been arrested for openly criticizing the government. He is widely believed to have been killed at hands of the Islamic Republic intelligence ministry for criticizing of Iran's Supreme Leader.

Background

Saidi Sirjani was a disillusioned supporter of the Islamic Revolution who used satirical and allegorical stories to criticize the Islamic Republic for what he saw as its "authoritarianism, religious hypocrisy, and obtrusive meddling in people's personal lives." His first open confrontation with the authorities came following the publication of a book of essays, stories, and parables called "You of Shortened Sleeves" in 1989. The first printing sold out in days and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance banned not only the second printing but all other books by Sirjani. [Molavi, Afshin, "The Soul of Iran" (2005), p. 126.]

Sirjani then initiated a letter-writing campaign, demanding that a second printing be released. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then told Sirjani through intermediaries to halt his writings and his protestations. Sirjani refused and "directly assailed the Islamic Republic in an open letter." According to Iranian scholar Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, this `letter sealed the author's fate in a way that no previous writing of his ... had done.` [Molavi, Afshin, "The Soul of Iran" (2005), p. 127.]

Arrest

Saidi-Sirjani was arrested on March 14th, 1994 (another source says March 13, 1993 [ [http://www.aidanederland.nl/informatie%20organisatie/essays/iran/Review%20of%20serial%20murders%20in%20Iran.html A Review of Serial Murders, Nahid Mousavi] ] ) and charged with openly criticizing the government, among other things. A spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Security and Intelligence claimed that the arrest was for "drug use, production of alcohol, homosexual activity, contacts with spy networks, and having received money from Western ‘counterrevolutionaries’". A few months later a letter purportedly "written by Sirjani himself admitted to a range of crimes against the state." [Molavi, Afshin, "The Soul of Iran" (2005), p. 127.]

His arrest became "a rallying point" for disparate factions of "expatriate Iranian intellectuals, academics," who came together "as never before." Letters of protest were

dispatched to various political and professional organizations in Europe and the United States. Organizations such as Amnesty International, the American PEN, Human Rights Watch, and the Middle East Studies Association, as well as many European associationsof writers [ [http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=HhnYxppThqVKT90JTGWwwJ012R96MpMFYglnGv8L7xP0HY04LsBx!380731055?docId=95705300 A Storyteller and His Times: 'Ali-Akbar Sa'Idi-Sirjani of Iran] ]

Death

The international human rights campaign failed to secure Saidi-Sirjani's release, however, and he died in custody 8 months after his arrest, reportedly at one of the safe houses of the Intelligence Ministry in Shemiran neighborhood in northern Tehran. [ [http://www.aidanederland.nl/informatie%20organisatie/essays/iran/Review%20of%20serial%20murders%20in%20Iran.html A Review of Serial Murders, Nahid Mousavi ] ] Iranian authorities gave the cause of his death as a heart attack, although his daughter, Sayeh Sirjani, said her father had no history of heart ailments. The Sirjani family also had repeatedly denied allegations that he was addicted to drugs. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1091EFF38540C7B8EDDA80994DC494D81 Leading Dissident Writer in Iran Dies After 8 Months in Detention] ] The Government is reported to have "refused to deliver his body to his family or to allow an independent autopsy." [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E5DC1639F937A35751C1A962958260 Writer's Death in Iran Calls for an Inquiry ] Letter to the editor, December 4, 1994]

It is widely believed and there is some evidence that he was killed by Saeed Emami's "Unleashed" group in the Ministry of Security and Intelligence of Iran. According to journalist Emadeddin Baqi, the method used to kill him was potassium.

One of Saeed Emami's colleagues and one of the last persons arrested, met a known clergyman and Majlis deputy from Tehran a few months before his arrest and revealed how Saeed Emami had murdered Saeedi Sirjani. He was the only witness present on the scene. Forcing a potassium suppository into the rectum of Saeedi Sirjani which caused a rapid heart attack was the method used by Saeed Emami to kill Saeedi Sirjani in the prison. This revealed the secret of other similar heart attacks. [ [http://www.aidanederland.nl/informatie%20organisatie/essays/iran/Review%20of%20serial%20murders%20in%20Iran.html A Review of Serial Murders, Nahid Mousavi] from the 272nd issue of the daily "Arzesh", dated December 12, 1999]

Iranian journalist Afshin Molavi has speculated that Sirjani was killed for crossing "the red line" from "writer and thinker to rebel." While the Islamic Republic would "grudgingly allowed allegorical criticism read by an elite," it took punitive action when the criticism became widely popular, when citizens disobeyed orders to stop protest and finally when they wrote "open letters to newspapers questioning the Supreme Leader." [Molavi, Afshin, "The Soul of Iran" (2005), pp. 127-8.]

ee also

*Chain murders of Iran

External links

*fa icon [http://www.ssirjani.com/ Saidi Sirjani Website]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=cgtb4YHUS-Y A video about Saidi Sirjani, directed by Reza Allamehzadeh] (uploaded by Allemehzadeh on Youtube)
* [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1091EFF38540C7B8EDDA80994DC494D81 Leading Dissident Writer in Iran Dies After 8 Months in Detention] , NY Times
* [http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1994_hrp_report/94hrp_report_nea/Iran.html Iran Human Rights Practices, 1994]
*fa icon [http://www.ssirjani.com/letters/toKhaamenei3.htm Saidi Sirjani's last open letter to Ali Khamenei]

References