Keyvan Bajan
Age: 51
Activities/Rights: Novelist and journalist
Status: Conditional release
Judicial status: 3 years and 6 months imprisonment
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention, lack of due process, unfair trial, denial of medical care, access to lawyer, press censorship
Keyvan Bajan is a novelist, journalist and member of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA). In 2015, his home was raided and his written work and materials seized and he was summoned and questioned. He was briefly detained as he could not afford the bail set. He appeared before Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Moghiseh with his co-defendants and IWA colleagues, Baktash Abtin and Reza Khandan Mahabadi on 22 January 2019. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment for “assembly and collusion against national security” and a year imprisonment for “propaganda against the system” by the same court on 15 May 2019. His IWA membership, publishing an internal news bulletin, preparing research for a book about the IWA’s 50 year history, IWA statements, participating in memorial ceremonies at the graves of chain-killing victims Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh and Mohammad Mokhtari, and participating in the annual ceremony for poet, Ahmad Shamlou were listed as examples of the charges. In December 2019, His sentence was reduced to three years and six months by Judge Ahmad Zargar when it was heard before Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeal on account of his clean criminal record. He was arrested and transferred to serve his sentence in Evin Prison on 26 September 2020. Keyvan and his IWA colleagues have received widespread support from both civil society and the literary world. On 16 September 2021, he was the joint winner of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award. Keyvan was conditionally released on 9 March 2022 after serving a third of his sentence.