Ahmad-Reza Ahmadpour is a cleric and an alumnus of the Qom seminary. On December 27, 2009, he was harassed, beaten and arrested by plainclothes security agents while he and his wife were observing the Ashura remembrance with other teachers and researchers in Qom.

Ahmadpour spent eleven days in the intelligence detention centre of Qom. The late Mehrdad Karimpour was arrested at the same Ashura remembrance ceremony. He passed away due to a collision between the security service’s car and a truck.

Ahmadpour’s case was heard in the Tribunal Branch 4 of the Special Clerical Courts which was presided over by Hojat Al-Islam Ansari. He was later released on a bail of 20 million tomans.

Ahmadpour wrote a number of entries for his blog, Silent Echoes, about his interrogation by security forces in which he says he was threatened with the immediate expulsion from his accomodation and having his tuition grants cut. As soon as he was released from prison, he received a letter from the vice chancellor of the seminary which stated that the seminary was forced to expel him from accommodation. This was only the start of the pressures and harassment that Ahmadpour would be forced to face.

On April 14, 2011, Ahmadpour wrote about his case and asked why he was not allowed to leave the country, saying, “What crime have I committed that means that I deserved to be imprisoned? And that I should be stripped of my clerical robes? I haven’t written anything nor have I said anything that should cause anyone offence. And yet I’ve been prohibited from leaving the country for such a long time?! Are such severe punishments proportionate to the accusations against me?! Are these unjust rulings and decrees in line with the legal and sharia rulings?”

In March 2010, Branch 2 of the Special Clerical Court, presided over by Hossein Bahrami, issued its initial judgement in the case. Ahmadpour was sentenced to a year in prison and a ban on clerical activity. But he was acquitted of charges of “actions against national security” through having email communications with the Mojahedin Khalq organization. Ahmadpour said in his defence that he had only received an anonymous email and newsletter from the Mojahedin Khalq.

Ahmadpour is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who was stationed in areas attacked by chemical weapons and, as such, he needed medical care. During his year-long imprisonment he broke his left arm in several places, but prison authorities refused to grant him a two-week hospital leave.

Ahmadpour, as a political prisoner, was forced to tolerate severe pain and suffering in prison. He protested against the poor living conditions of the prisoners who were subjected to both intense heat and cold in open courtyards of the prison, overcrowding and a shortage of hygienic facilities, malnutrition, torture, degrading behaviour against prisoners and the violation of prisoners’ rights. As a result of these hardships, Ahmadpour carried out a 17 day hunger strike. During the strike, he also wrote a letter of complaint to the United Nations Secretary-General. The letter was used as evidence in a later arrest and subsequent conviction.

On July 17, 2011, Ahmadpour was once again arrested at his home. He spent 21 days in solitary confinement and under interrogation at the intelligence division of Qom. He was then sentenced to “propaganda activity against the state,” “spreading falsehoods” and “actions against national security through having email communications with hypocrites,” the same accusation of which he had previously been acquitted. He was sentenced to three years in prison in Ahvaz Prison, ten years of exile to the city of Izeh, Khusetan, a fine of 200,000 tomans for having satellite equipment, a fine of 50,000 tomans for possessing “vulgar” music CDs in his house, a prohibition on clerical activity and clerical positions, and his tuition bursaries were cut.

Ahmadpour was then transferred directly to the Special Clerical section of Qom’s Central Prison. After several months in Qom’s Central Prison, he was transferred to Ahvaz’s Sepidar Prison which, according to him, was an extremely deprived and horrible prison. From there, he was moved to Ray Base in the same area, where he spent a month. Finally, he was moved to Qom’s Saheli Prison where he was held for a year.

For five months in Qom’s Saheli Prison, Ahmadpour carried out a hunger strike protesting against the beatings and torture that the prisoners were receiving in the adjoining prison section and in protest against his inability to gain access to the bills of restitution for his case. As such, the prison authorities ordered that Ahmadpour be transferred to Yazd Prison. But he had become exasperated about being moved from prison to prison. He strongly resisted the decision to transfer him to Yazd prison and once resorted to going on hunger strike.

Following this, he was transferred to Khorramabad’s Parsilon Prison and remained there until July 11, 2013. On July 12, he was taken to the Special Clerical Courts of Ahvaz and was released to spend 10 years in exile in Izeh, over 900 kilometres away from where his family lived.

In September 2013, the court’s initial ruling of 10 years exile to Izeh was reduced to two years. Ahmadpour spoke about the reduction of his sentence, saying, “When I was sentenced to 10 years exile to Izeh by the Special Clerical Courts of Qom and Ahaz, the maximum length of supplementary penalties (such as exile) that could be given according to the Islamic Penal Codes was two years. As such, I wrote a letter of protest and requested that my sentence would be limited according to the law. Fortunately, the court reviewed my case in accordance with the penal codes and my sentence was reduced.”

Ahmadpour was denied access to legal counsel at all stages of his legal process while his trial was held in violation of the legal standards.

That same year, the Special Clerical Court of Ahvaz presided over by Judge Qasidi, sentenced Ahmadpour to 100 days suspended imprisonment for a period of three years, for writing a letter to the Supreme Leader in which Ahmadpour petitioned him to refrain from oppression, observe justice and implement the law fairly.

In June 2015, Ahmadpour was informed of the possibility that his exile to Izeh was coming to an end. According to Ahmadpour, Khuzestan’s special clerical prosecutor in Ahvaz issued a formal letter to the police in Izeh which stated that he had been freed from “the duty to observe his compulsory residence.”

Despite this, it was some time before the Special Clerical Prosecutor’s Office of Qom summoned him. Ahmadpour published a post on his personal Facebook page writing about the delay, saying “My exile is due to finish on July 13, but with the start of Ramadan [June 17] my period of exile is not yet over. I was summoned to the Special Clerical Courts yesterday. I could return tomorrow or I could be arrested. Finally, I will be returning from exile tomorrow. Two years ago, again at the start of Ramadan, I was sent on my exile but after two years I will have returned from exile.”

In July 2016, a group of human rights activists and civil activists published a statement concerning Narges Mohammadi’s hunger strike, of which Ahmadpour was one of the signatories. Civil activists inside Iran issued the statement calling on Mohammadi to end her hunger strike to comfort her family, children and loved ones.