Adnan Hassanpour is the longest-serving journalist in prison in Iran. He was arrested on January 25th, 2007 at his home and spent months in solitary confinement at the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province. He was tried on June 12th, 2007 by Marivan’s Revolutionary Court in a closed-door session and was condemned to death on the charge of enmity against God. His lawyers - Nikbakht Vahedi and Sirvan Hooshmandi - objected to the verdict.

The judgment was reviewed by Branch 32 of the Supreme Court that upheld the verdict on October 22, 2007, leading to international outrage. The French foreign minister, PEN International, the European Union and many human rights organizations asked for the verdict to be repealed. His lawyers also filed an appeal. Hassanpour’s case was then sent to another branch of the Supreme Court, which overturned the death sentence and referred the case back to the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj.

On September 5th 2008, this court sentenced him to 31 years in prison but his lawyers re-objected. Eventually the appeals court in Kurdistan reduced the sentence to 15 years in prison.

In the summer of 2013, Hassanpour sent a letter to Hassan Rouhani 15 days after he became president of the Islamic Republic. In the letter he asked Rouhani to pay attention to the legitimate but ignore the demands of the people of Kurdistan.

In February 2014, Hassanpour, who had been incarcerated in Marivan, was suddenly transferred to a prison in Zabol in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, 2,000 kilometers from his native Kurdistan. No explanation was given for this but according to his sister it was in retaliation to his letter to President Rouhani. Hassanpour was kept in the quarantine ward of Zabol prison for 15 days but reportedly the judiciary in Zabol refused to accept him and he was sent to Zahedan, the province’s capital. Then on April 19, 2014 he was transferred back to Kurdistan.

After having served half of his sentence, the judicial authorities still refused to grant furlough to Hassanpour, despite requests from his family, his lawyer Mr. Saleh Nikbakht, and an endorsement for temporary release by the Prison Organization. In an interview with the Committee of Human Rights Reporters in February 2014, his sister Leili Hassanpour said: “Adnan has a good attitude but his physical condition is weakening due to being held behind bars for seven years without a furlough.” She added: "In all these years Adnan’s only communication with his family has been via phone calls and occasional visits without an hour of furlough.”

In October 2014, Hassanpour was granted a leave of absence for the first time in 8 years.