Political prisoner Hamid Haj Jafar Kashani was tortured for chanting against Khamenei. This former political prisoner was arrested for the third time on Sunday, April 27, 2025, on North Kargar Street in Tehran and is currently under beating and torture.
According to a video that circulated widely on social media on Sunday, Hamid Kashani, a former political prisoner, was arrested on North Kargar Street in Tehran while holding a placard reading “Death to the principle of the Supreme Leader” and chanting “Death to Khamenei.” He had also written on his placard: “This homeland will not become a true homeland until the mullahs are buried.”
Hamid Kashani, born in 1982 in Tehran, was arrested in February 2020 on charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)” and sentenced to three years and six months in prison. He served his sentence in Rasht Prison, Evin Prison, and the Greater Tehran Penitentiary.
After his release, Kashani migrated to Turkey, but he was deported and once again imprisoned in Evin Prison for one year, where he was subjected to torture and pressure. During his previous imprisonments, he was repeatedly pressured to make forced confessions and express remorse on the Iranian regime’s television.
In January 2021, Hamid Haj Jafar Kashani was sentenced by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, to three years and six months of prison for “assembly and collusion” and eight months of prison for “propaganda against the regime.” As supplementary punishment, he was also sentenced to two years of deprivation from membership in political parties, groups, and factions, and two months of compulsory daily work, four hours per day, at the Cultural and Educational Deputy of the Martyrs and Veterans Affairs Foundation, under the supervision of the foundation’s security department.
Kashani had previously been arrested and convicted for his political activities. In his most recent case before this, he was arrested by security forces in Qaemshahr in 2018 and was sentenced by Branch 2 of the Sari Revolutionary Court to three years of prison on charges of “insulting the leadership” and “propaganda against the regime.”
Hamid Kashani is a futsal referee. After his release from prison in 2017, based on a decision by the security department of Iran’s Football Federation, he was banned from continuing his refereeing career in the premier league futsal competitions.
On July 20, 2022, Kashani was transferred from Evin Prison to Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. He suffers from kidney problems and was denied proper medical care and medical furlough throughout his imprisonment.
