Ali Malihi, a journalist and former student activist, has faced arrests on two occasions. 

First Arrest

On February 9, 2010, Ali Malihi was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence at his father's home and transferred to solitary confinement in Section 240 of Evin Prison. He was held there for two months before being transferred to the general prison population.

While Malihi was in solitary confinement, Javad Malihi, his father, published an open letter addressed to Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran’s Prosecutor-General, in which he protested against the pressure and coercion that his son faced in solitary confinement.

Ali Malihi's case was eventually referred to Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Courts, presided over by Judge Moghiseh. On May 12, 2010, the Revolutionary Courts sentenced him to four years in prison. The sentence was later upheld by the Court of Appeals.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Malihi’s lawyer, spoke to Deutsche Welle in an interview while Malihi was still in custody, in which he called the court’s verdict unfair. He Dadkhah added that “The objection that we had in regards to the court’s ruling was that even if the allegations made by the prosecutor were correct, Mr. Malihi's presence in those gatherings were in his capacity as a reporter and as such nullifies all these accusations. It makes it impossible to attribute ... crimes to him. As a journalist, he has a right and a duty to act as an honest narrator of events, to be present in various circles and among various authorities and to report on them. If we declare that a journalist doesn’t have the right to go to a gathering, it is the same as telling a police officer that you have no right to get involved in a conflict. It's like telling a doctor in a hospital that he has no right to treat patients.”

After enduring approximately two years in jail, Malihi was pardoned and released from Evin Prison on August 15, 2012, along with a number of other political and media prisoners.


Second Arrest

On May 12, 2019, Malihi was arrested for a second time at his home. After his arrest, security officers searched the house and confiscated a number of personal belongings, including his mobile phone and laptop.

Seyyed Ali Mojtahedzadeh, Malihi’s lawyer in this case, told the Iranian Labour News Agency that he had not been arrested or detained.

“Mr. Malihi had not been arrested, only summoned. After receiving the summons, we went to the prosecutor's office, we were treated well, and, with the cooperation of the prosecutor's office, we submitted a bail of 50 million tomans and Mr Malihi was allowed to go free,” Mojtahedzadeh said.

Prior to his arrest, Malihi had tweeted a criticism of the closure of the Seda weekly publication, which had warned of the danger of a war between Iran and the United States.

Malihi tweeted: “Seda was suspended because it warned about the danger of war and stressed the necessity of negotiations for peace. The reason for the publication’s suspension is ridiculous. This morning, the Seda radio presenter asked [conservative Iranian politician, and former military official] Ezzatollah Zarghami, ‘Lots of people are asking: Is there going to be a war?’ Ezzatollah reponded, ‘Not a military war, no.’ Why aren’t you allowed to ask a question like that on the radio? It isn’t disturbing [public opinion], but Seda is going to be shut down for that?”

Ali Malihi's case was initially investigated in the Culture and Media Prosecutor’s Office before it was referred to Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Courts of Tehran. On March 18, 2020, Malihi was sentenced to two years in prison and a four million toman fine on the charge of “publishing lies.”

Malihi’s lawyer wrote about the verdict on Twitter, saying: “This sentence has been suspended for four years, during which time my client must submit an application to the attorney general in order to be eligible to leave the country. According to the court’s ruling, my client must also transcribe several books, including “One Woman’s War: Da (Mother)”, “The Falafel Seller Boy” and “Fifty Years at the Pahlavi Court.”