Mehran Raoof

Mehran Raoof

British-Iranian Labor Activist

Biography

Mehran Raoof is a labor rights activist and national of Iran and the U.K. who has divided his time between them.

Arrest

On October 16, 2020, IRGC intelligence functionaries raided and searched Raoof’s home and arrested him, confiscating his computer and several other belongings. The Iranian regime arrested other labor rights activists throughout the country that month.

A colleague of Raoof who lives in London told the Daily Telegraph that Raoof helped translate news articles from English to Farsi. He added that the Iranian government had detained Raoof and 15 other workers because a young girl had surreptitiously recorded their conversations about labor rights at a coffee shop.

Treatment in Captivity and Letter from Prison

The authorities threw Raoof into Iran’s infamous Evin Prison. He was held in solitary confinement for months with the lights on at all times, and threatened with harm in the event that he did not “cooperate.” He was held in Evin’s Ward 2A, which is under the IRGC’s direct control. The authorities refuse to let him make phone calls abroad, which means he is deprived of contact with his entire immediate family.

Raoof’s friends attempted to hire an attorney of his choice, but the government refused to make Raoof’s case file available to that lawyer before the hostage’s trial. 

According to a Guardian article from 2024, one of Raoof’s fellow labor union activists, Satar Rahmani, said that Raoof had been interrogated for lengthy periods, been harassed physically and mentally in prison, and been deprived of medical care to treat his diabetes. A source told IranWire in 2022 that Raoof “hasn’t even been provided with a bed and he sleeps on the floor . . . The prison conditions and being in prison have put psychological pressure on him.”

In a letter from prison released in the spring of 2023, Raoof said the Iranian law-enforcement system is “subject to the interpretations and whims of those in power,” and that the regime utilizes dual national hostages as “a valuable commodity” to extract concessions, such as “large sums of money,” from foreign governments. He added that the regime imprisons people for thought crimes or peaceful behavior and holds them in “special detention center[s]” run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or the intelligence ministry. He said the detainees are held in “a solitary cell designed for ill-treatment” and questioned while they are blindfolded, “facing a wall,” or in rooms with “smoked glass where the accused cannot see the interrogators.”

Raoof concluded his letter, “This clear discrimination and oppression are not unfamiliar to us, who have lived under the rule of the Islamic Republic for over 40 years. Many of us, including political prisoners, women’s rights activists, environmental activists, and workers’ rights activists are imprisoned on charges of having different beliefs and opinions and protesting against wrong and dictatorial policies and laws. We stand in solidarity with the nationwide protests, demanding the unconditional release of all political prisoners.”

Charges and Trial

The regime has never publicly stated the precise charges against Raoof and the status of his case. His trial date was set for April 28, 2021, but little or no news from his trial was reported publicly. The Guardian reportedin 2024 that Raoof stated that his captors did not tell him of the reasons for his detention when he was first taken hostage, and that they refused him access to legal counsel with the exception of the dates of his two trial hearings. 

Sentencing

Raoof was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison by Judge Iman Afshari in Branch 26 of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court, according to an August 4, 2021, tweet by his lawyer. The attorney, Mostafa Nili, said that Raoof was sentenced to ten years for the crime of “participating in the management of an illegal group” and eight months “for propaganda activities against the regime.”

A Britain-based supporter of Raoof, Satar Rahmani, said that Judge Afshari told Raoof in Evin Prison that he “deserved” the sentence. Raoof had told the judge that he was afraid that he would die in prison. Judge Afshari is known for handing out prison sentences to defendants prosecuted for political reasons on trumped-up charges.

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, Raoof’s prison sentence was later reduced to seven years and six months.

International Reaction

The British government “strongly” condemned Raoof’s sentence, stating, “We continue to do all we can to support Mehran and his family, and continue to raise his case at the most senior levels.”

Amnesty International first brought Raoof’s case to light and has called for his immediate release.

In April 2022, Raoof’s fellow union activist and official spokesperson, Satar Rahmani, criticized the British government for “a travesty and outrage”—namely, not including Raoof and two other Britons held hostage in Iran in a deal that freed hostages Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori. Following the announcement of the deal, the UK’s then–foreign minister, Liz Truss, was asked in Parliament about Raoof. She replied, “I must respect the individual’s request of whether their case should be raised in public. That is why we mention publicly only those individuals who have asked to be named.” Reacting to Truss’s comments, Rahmani said:

I can state unequivocally that neither of these statements is accurate.Mehran’s family and friends properly informed the Foreign Office that it should raise Mehran’s case with the Iranian authorities to secure his release. They did not state that his case should not be made public. And they named me as their representative.

Since then, I as well as Amnesty International have been in contact with the Foreign Office, pressing them to do everything possible to secure Mehran’s release.

I would also ask Foreign Minister Truss why she says Mehran did not want his case made public. Mehran was held in solitary confinement for months following his arrest and denied independent legal counsel. Did any British official visit Mehran to ascertain his wishes?

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