Esmail Gerami

Age: 71
Activism/rights: Workers' rights activist
Status: Released
Judicial status:  -
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention, denial of medical care, access to lawyer, lack of due process, unfair trial

Esmail Gerami, a retired worker from a carton manufacturing factory, has for years campaigned for sectoral demands and the rights of pensioners and has repeatedly been summoned and arrested. He was arrested on 10 May 2018 during a teachers’ gathering outside the Planning and Budget Organisation and transferred to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office. He was temporarily released a few days later. On 3 April 2021, IRGC agents arrested Esmail at his home. He was transferred to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary a few days later. Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Esmail to 5 years’ imprisonment, 74 lashes and a fine of two million tomans on charges of “assembly and collusion with intent to commit crimes against national security.” The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal on 20 September 2021. On 8 October 2021, a group of prisoners convicted of violent crimes physically attacked Esmail and several other political prisoners. In meetings with prison officials, he had warned about the lack of safety and requested to be transferred to another ward. On 24 July 2022, he was transferred to Evin Prison without prior notice. One week later, despite suffering from epilepsy and other underlying health conditions, Esmail was denied medical treatment after contracting COVID-19 because he refused to be taken to hospital in handcuffs and shackles, and he was returned to the prison quarantine ward. 

Following the fire at Evin Prison on 15 October 2022, he was transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison, where he also remained deprived of medical care. He was released from prison on 13 February 2023 under the “general amnesty” directive. Esmail was again arrested on 21 November 2023 during a pensioners’ gathering outside the Social Security Organisation and released later the same night.

On 7 August 2024, security agents raided his home, confiscated his electronic devices and national ID card, and ordered him to report to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office within five days. A few days later, after appearing at the prosecutor’s office, he was arrested and transferred to Evin Prison. In September 2024, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment on charges of “propaganda against the system through participation in gatherings”.

Following the Israeli attack on Evin Prison in July 2025, Esmail was transferred, along with other political prisoners, to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary where he was released from on 21 July 2025 upon completion of his sentence.