Mohammadreza Faghihi

Age: 54
Activism/rights: Human rights lawyer
Status: Evin Prison
Judicial status: 5 years’ imprisonment
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of a fair trial and due process; denial of medical care; denial of access to a lawyer;  judicial harassment

Mohammadreza Faghihi is a lawyer and member of the Iranian Association for the Defence of Prisoners’ Rights. On 14 August 2021, he went to file a complaint against the National Task Force Against Coronavirus and the Supreme Leader at the Tehran Citizen’s Rights Protection Association for their mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to sources, 15 forces and two judicial officials entered the meeting and arrested all seven claimants. At the time the complaint was being filed, 15 security agents and two judicial officials entered the meeting and arrested all seven complainants, including Mohammad Reza Faghihi.

On 25 August, Saeed Khalili reported that after going to Evin court to introduce himself as the lawyer in Mohammadreza’s case, he was turned away at the door and told that there would be no lawyers or bail. At the same time, security forces raided his home and confiscated his belongings.

On 30 August 2021, Faghihi was released on bail. Approximately ten months later, on 20 June 2022, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on the charge of “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against national security”. This sentence was upheld on 16 August 2022 by Branch 36 of the Court of Appeal.

On 14 October 2022, Mohammadreza was arrested at the lawyers’ peaceful protest outside the Iranian Bar Association in Tehran after security forces attacked the gathering with teargas during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” nationwide protests. He was released on bail on 25 October 2022. On 5 October 2024 Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment, two years’ ban on leaving the country, and two years’ deprivation of the right to practise law and membership of political parties and groups, on the charge of “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against national security”.

Mohammadreza's sentence was enforced from 21 January 2025 and he was transferred to Evin Prison to begin serving  his five-year term. Following the Israeli attack on Evin Prison in July 2025, Mohammadreza was transferred overnight to Greater Tehran Penitentiary in handcuffs and electronic restraints, and was  later transferred back to Evin Prison.

In November 2025, Saleh Noghrehkar, Mohammadreza's lawyer, reported  that despite the Supreme Court having accepted the request for retrial and issued an order to suspend the enforcement of the sentence, the order has not yet been implemented.