Kasra Nouri

Kasra Nouri (Persian: کسری نوری ‎), is an Iranian Jurist and Sufi’s rights activist . He is the chief editor of Website "Majzooban-e noor" covers news about the Gonabadi dervishes religious community also He supported Mehdi Karroubi (presidential candidate) in 2009 Iranian presidential election.

Nouri’s brother, Pooria Nouri, confirmed the news on his personal Twitter account on March 9, 2019, writing, “due to my brother’s decision not to appeal his verdict, his initial sentence was upheld and communicated/announced to him today in prison.”

Iranian journalist Kasra Nouri was arrested in February 2018 while covering religious protests for the Majzooban-e-Noor website, which covers news about the Gonabadi Dervishes, a Sufi splinter group. He is serving a 12-year sentence on anti-state charges in Adel-Abad prison near the central city of Shiraz, after initially being held in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. Tehran’s Appeals Court upheld his sentence in March 2019.

During the 2018 Dervish protests, he was arrested along with his mother Shokoufeh Yadollahi and his brothers Pouria Nouri and Amir Nouri.

Nouri was later arrested and jailed for anti-regime activities. He was arrested for 11 days in January 2018 and imprisoned in Evin Prison without any legal process. His mother told the BBC Persian service at the time that he went on a hunger strike immediately after his arrest. According to a January 2018 interview with Nouri by the Iranian Diaspora News Website WW, Nouri was finally released.

Nouri was sentenced to 12 years in prison, 74 lashes, two years in exile in a remote city, a two-year ban on political, social and media activities, and a two-year ban on traveling outside Iran, U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on July 30, 2018. Judge Mashaullah Ahmadzadeh, the head of Branch 26 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court, tried Nouri and issued the verdict against him in absentia, RFE/RL reported. In a July 28 post on Twitter, Majzooban-e-Noor said Nouri was convicted on a number of charges. An August 29 report by Human Rights Watch said these charges included "assembly and collusion against national security," "disrupting public order," "rebelling against officers on duty," and "propaganda against the state."

In January 2013 prisoners in Tehran protested against mistreatment by going on hunger strike for 90 days. The journalist began waging a hunger strike in April 2013 to protest the transfer to solitary confinement of several Majzooban-e Noor journalists. Finally, after authorities met the demands of dervishes, the prisoner hunger strike ended. Dervish prisoners on hunger strike along with Nouri caused worldwide concern over the situation. Ana Gomes, a member of the European Parliament wrote to the Iranian Embassy in Belgium and Portugal and sent a letter to the Iranian Foreign Ministry calling for Kasra Nouri and other dervishes imprisoned, to be freed. The German Foreign Ministry released a statement regarding the status of Kasra Nouri and other political prisoners, expressing concern on Germany's Deutsche Welle Radio on the 69th day of his hunger strike. Amnesty International also shared concern with regard to the issue. As well as this, in his statement Mr.Kasra Nouri claims that detention authorities in the Shiraz "prison ministry", beat the prisoners to end their hunger strike. The Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, in a letter to Ahmed Shaheed, expressed sympathy over Kasra Nouri and the dervishes' situation, especially with regards to the rights of religious minorities in Iran.

Nouri was arrested in 2012 and was sentenced in 2013 to four years and four months in prison for "propaganda against the regime," "acting against national security," "insulting the Supreme Leader," and "membership in the Majzooban-e-Noor group," according to Majzooban-e-Noor.

He was first arrested on January 11, 2012 at his home by plainclothes police, which occurred after 47 days of confinement in the Intelligence Office. His family knew nothing of his whereabouts or condition until a month later; after repeated attempts they were finally allowed to visit. Known under the pseudonym "No. 100", he was released on bail set at 50 million Tomans (or 500,000,000 Iranian Rials). The temporary release of political prisoners took two weeks. For the second time, on March 24, he was again arrested at his home by plainclothes police after an alleged interview with Radio Free Europe. His release on bail was blocked, after 15 months in detention and transfer to the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz, he was sentenced on April 23, 2012, receiving a four-year, four-month jail term.

According to the Human Rights Campaign the charge against him states that this human right activist's actions would result "promoting innovation in doctrine matters", "insecurity in society and promoting superstitions". The warrant was issued by Judge Rashidi, president of Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz and finally, after a delay of five months was confirmed in appeal. A qualified lawyer, in 2012 he and a group of other lawyers and human rights defenders issued calls to maintain the independence of the Iranian Bar.

Majzooban-e-Noor covers news about the Gonabadi dervishes' religious community. Nouri had reported that security and intelligence forces had incited local residents to attack the dervishes during a September 2011 confrontation, causing one death and injuries to several others. Many dervishes, including several other journalists with Majzooban-e-Noor, were imprisoned immediately after the 2011 crackdown.