Payam Derafshan

Payam Derafshan

Biography

Payam Derafshan has defended high-profile clients, including lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and the environmentalist Kavous Seyed Emami (the latter of whom died under suspicious circumstances in prison) that the regime has prosecuted for political reasons.

First Arrest and Trial

The regime first arrested Derafshan on August 30, 2018, releasing him on bail one week later. He was sentenced to two years in prison and banned from practicing law for two years on the charge of “insulting the leadership.” Derafshan was not allowed to review the case against him, and his attorney, Saeed Dehghan, was not allowed into the trial. On May 15, 2020, an appellate court reduced Derafshan’s jail sentence to one year and voided the ban on him practicing law.

Second Arrest and Trial

The regime arrested Derafshan again on June 7, 2020. Dehghan stated on July 20, 2020, that Derafshan had been sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for “acting against national security,” “propaganda against the state,” and “carrying an unauthorized taser,” but was acquitted of “assembly and collusion against national security.” Derafshan was given medical leave in September of 2020 and the regime gave him a conditional release in October 2021.

Treatment in Captivity

During his second detention, the regime reportedly held Derafshan in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–controlled 2-Alef ward of the notoriously brutal Evin Prison. The authorities put Derafshan in solitary confinement and subjected him to sleep deprivation. According to Dehghan, after Derafshan protested the conditions of his detention, three officers injected Derafshan with a substance that caused a convulsion, resulting in Derafshan biting off part of his tongue. While Derafshan was then taken to a Tehran hospital, before he could finish his treatment the regime sought and received an extension of Derafshan’s detention order from Iranian Revolutionary Court Judge Mohammad Moghiseh (also known as “the Hanging Judge”). Derafshan later experienced further convulsions and, at a psychiatric hospital, was administered electric shocks that reportedly further harmed his brain. After he complained about being handcuffed and shackled, guards assaulted him. The entire time, the regime did not tell Derafshan’s family where he was.