Hasan (Farshad) Asvad is a journalist from Tabriz who was born in 1974. As a journalist, Asvad has previously worked with the Khordad and Fatah newspapers. He was also a former member of the Sarai Ahl-e Ghalam Organization, an independent online publishing group that helps Iranian authors and translators share their work, circumvent government censorship and to communicate with others.

First Arrest

Hasan Asvad was arrested for the first time on June 25, 2009, by agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), as he participated in protests in Karaj. The protests were part of nationwide demonstrations in the aftermath of the disputed 2009 reelection of then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

After his arrest, security agents took him to District 12 of Mohammad Rasoolullah in Karaj. He was forced to spend 20 days in solitary confinement, after which he was released.

Asvad was later fired from his position at the Ministry of Energy, in the Education and Research Publications Department, where he had worked for 12 years. The dismissal was apparently on the orders of a national security directive.

No legal case has been filed against Hasan Asvad in connection with this arrest.

Second Arrest

In 2012, the IRGC discovered that Asvad was making a documentary about the children of political prisoners. He was arrested by agents from the IRGC's Intelligence Organization at Shiraz airport on May 25, 2012, while he was trying to board a flight from Tehran to Shiraz and to subsequently leave the country.

Asvad spoke in 2020 to Journalism Is Not A Crime about that arrest, saying: “Without prior notice and while I was trying to travel to Kuala Lumpur, plainclothes agents came and arrested me. I was detained for two weeks in the Plaque 100 Detention Center in Shiraz. Most of the interrogators' questions were related to a documentary we were going to make about the children of political prisoners.”

Eventually, after two weeks, due to the lack of sufficient evidence regarding the aforementioned documentary, Asvad was released from detention.

Third Arrest

On December 13, 2012, a few hours before the mourning ceremonies for Sattar Beheshti, Asvad, who had apparently planned to attend the ceremony, was arrested by the security police of the town of Robat Karim. He and a number of other detainees from the ceremony were released a few hours later.

Beheshti was arrested by the Iranian Cyber Police on October 30, 2012. He was charged with “committing actions against national security” through his activity on social media. Beheshti died on November 3, allegedly from torture and beatings he was subjected to during interrogation. He was buried in Robat Karim Cemetery in Tehran province.

Security officers from Robat Karim also arrested Sattar's brother, Rahim, immediately after the mourning ceremony, later releasing him on bail. According to the information published by eyewitnesses, plainclothes agents physically and verbally assaulted Sattar Beheshti's mother, sister and brother after the ceremony.

Fourth Arrest

On June 22, 2014, while Hasan Asvad was returning to Iran from a visit to Turkey, he was arrested at the Urmia border by agents from the Urmia Intelligence Headquarters. He later spoke to Journalism Is Not A Crime about his arrest, saying: “My detention lasted for three days, after which I was released on a bail of 150 million tomans. During these three days of detention and interrogation, they asked questions about why I had travelled to Turkey: even though I had gone there for a holiday. Due to my activity on social networks like Facebook and the previous legal cases against me, they filed a new legal case against me on the charge of “committing actions against national security.” The legal case was filed in Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Courts of Urmia and the prosecutor issued a bail of 150 million tomans for my release. This case is still open."

Asvad left Iran for Turkey permanently on July 10, 2014, by crossing the land border between the two countries at Sero. He currently lives in Turkey.