Bahman Ahmadi Amouee

Amouee is a member of the nomadic Bakhtiari people from Southwestern Iran, and spent the first six years of his life in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province. In order that Amouee could attend school, his family moved to Khuzestan province. He later studied economics at the Babolsar College of Economics and Social Sciences, and then moved into economic journalism. In addition to his work with the daily newspaper, he also wrote two books: The Political Economy of the Islamic Republic and How did Islamic Revolutionaries became Technocrats? == 2009 arrest ==

Beginning in June 2009, Iran saw widespread protests following a disputed election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected amid allegations of voter fraud. On the night of 20 June, Amouee and Baniyaghoob were arrested at their home by plainclothes police officers, as part of a general crackdown on journalists. On 4 January 2010, Amouee was sentenced to a flogging of 32 lashes as well as seven years and four months' imprisonment on charges of "gathering and colluding with intent to harm national security", "spreading propaganda against the system", "disrupting public security" and "insulting the president". In the same month, Baniyaghoob was tried and convicted for "spreading propaganda against the system" and "insulting the president". The court banned her from practicing journalism for thirty years and sentenced her to a year in prison. Human Rights Watch also lobbied for Amouee's release, stating that his imprisonment was a violation of freedom of speech; in 2011, the organization named him a winner of its Hellmann-Hammett award. Amouee is serving his sentence at Evin Prison. On 26 July 2010, he was transferred to solitary confinement, prompting him to begin a hunger strike along with several other jailed journalists. == References ==