Free Mohammad Ali Amouri and Ensure Urgent Medical Care
10
Signatures
500
Goal
24 June 2026
To: The Head of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Prosecutor General, the Head of the State Prisons Organization, the Chief Justice of Khuzestan Province, and the Prosecutor of Ahvaz
Copies to: The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, and international human rights organizations
We, the signatories of this petition, call on the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately and unconditionally release Mohammad Ali Amouri, an Ahwazi Arab cultural activist, educator, writer, poet, and engineer who has spent more than fifteen years in prison.
Pending his release, we urge the authorities to provide him with immediate, sustained, and specialist medical care outside prison, to guarantee his regular access to his family and lawyer, and to protect him from any further transfer to incommunicado detention, intimidation, or ill-treatment.
Mohammad Ali Amouri is one of the founding members of the Al-Hiwar Cultural Institute, a peaceful cultural organization established to promote education, literature, dialogue, and Arabic language and culture among the Ahwazi Arab community in Iran. Al-Hiwar operated publicly during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, with a focus on cultural dialogue, reading, poetry, language education, and community learning. Its later banning and the prosecution of its members turned peaceful cultural activity into a security case.
Amouri was returned to Iran from Iraq in 2011, after having fled Iran years earlier. Following his arrest, he was held for months without meaningful protection from abuse, and human rights organizations have reported allegations of torture, prolonged solitary confinement, denial of access to family and counsel, and reliance on forced confessions in proceedings against members of Al-Hiwar.
In July 2012, a Revolutionary Court sentenced Mohammad Ali Amouri and four other Ahwazi Arab activists, Hashem Sha’bani Amouri, Hadi Rashedi, Sayed Jaber Alboshokeh, and Sayed Mokhtar Alboshokeh, to death on charges including “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth.” International human rights organizations and UN experts raised serious concerns about the fairness of the proceedings, the use of vague national-security charges, and allegations of torture.
Two of the men, Hashem Sha’bani Amouri and Hadi Rashedi, were executed in 2014 after years on death row. Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshokeh, and Sayed Mokhtar Alboshokeh later had their death sentences reduced to life imprisonment. The commutation of a death sentence, however, does not remedy an unjust conviction or the continuing punishment of peaceful cultural activity.
During more than fifteen years of imprisonment, Mohammad Ali Amouri has reportedly suffered serious deterioration in his health, including eye and vision problems, severe dental and gum disease, sinus and internal medical problems, chest-related complications, and other untreated conditions. Reports from human rights sources indicate that his access to adequate medical care has been delayed, restricted, or denied, despite repeated concerns raised by family members and advocates.
In late 2025, after fifteen years without prison leave, Amouri was granted a short medical furlough. That brief leave underscored the seriousness of his condition, but it did not amount to proper treatment, and he was returned to prison before his medical needs could be fully addressed. In May 2026, reports indicated that he was taken from Sheiban Prison by intelligence officials, held without information being provided to his family, and then returned to Ward 5 of Sheiban Prison after about ten days. Such transfers deepen concern for his safety, health, and access to due process.
Mohammad Ali Amouri is not only a prisoner or a case number. Those who know him remember him as a thoughtful, humane, and intellectually engaged person whose life has been shaped by books, teaching, poetry, and a commitment to learning. The reported deterioration of his eyesight is especially painful for those who know how central reading and intellectual life have always been to his identity.
Promoting one’s language, literature, and culture is not a crime. Teaching, writing, reading, organizing cultural dialogue, and preserving the Arabic language and Ahwazi Arab heritage are peaceful acts protected by fundamental rights to expression, association, education, culture, and equality.
We therefore call on the Iranian authorities to:
- Release Mohammad Ali Amouri immediately and unconditionally.
- Pending his release, transfer him without delay to qualified medical specialists outside prison, including for eye, dental, internal, chest-related, and mobility-related conditions.
- Ensure his regular access to his family and lawyer, and end any form of incommunicado detention, intimidation, or retaliatory transfer.
- Conduct an independent and transparent review of his conviction and sentence, including allegations of torture, forced confessions, denial of due process, and denial of medical care.
- End the criminalization of peaceful cultural, linguistic, educational, and civic activity by Ahwazi Arab activists and other minority communities in Iran.
We call on local and international human rights organizations, medical associations, writers, educators, cultural workers, and all people of conscience to support this petition and urge the Iranian authorities to protect Mohammad Ali Amouri’s life, health, and freedom.
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Province Number of signatures Alborz 0 Ardabil 0 Bushehr 0 Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari 0 East Azerbaijan 0 Fars 0 Gilan 0 Golestan 0 Hamadan 0 Hormozgan 0 Ilam 0 Isfahan 0 Kerman 0 Kermanshah 0 Khuzestan 1 Kohgiluyehv And Boyer Ahmad 0 Kurdistan 0 Lorestan 0 Markazi 0 Mazandaran 0 North Khorasan 0 Qazvin 0 Qom 0 Razavi Khorasan 0 Semnan 0 Sistan and Baluchestan 0 South Khorasan 0 Tehran 0 West Azerbaijan 0 Yazd 0 Zanjan 0 This petition has received 10 signatures so far. Approximately 50% of signatures come from Iran. Approximately 50% of signatures come from outside of Iran. Learn how Daadkhast generates signature maps. -
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من این دادخواست را امضا میکنم، چون فعالیت فرهنگی، آموزش زبان مادری و پاسداری از هویت یک جامعه نباید با زندان و محرومیت از درمان پاسخ بگیرد.
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An Iranian Arab activist started this petition
