Fearing the outcome of his trial, he moved to Germany where he now lives and works as a journalist. Mahdavi Azad began his career as a journalist in 1999 but on June 23rd, 2009, whilst he was working as the managing editor of Shahab News, he was arrested by the Cyber Unit of the Revolutionary Guards and put into solitary confinement in Cell Block 240 of Evin Prison.

Like the families of many other jailed journalists, his family was pressurized into keeping silent on his arrest to the media. Mahdavi Azad spent a total of 40 days in solitary confinement and was subjected to prolonged interrogation sessions. However, he later conceded that the majority of his interrogators treated him decently. Mahdavi Azad was arrested once before but this too was hushed up. His first arrest was prompted by the publishing of his book that looked at the Islamic government’s nuclear policies, and its repeated publication on the Aftab News site.

Amnesty International and the International Federation of Journalists issued statements calling for his release. Eventually he was on a bail of $75,000 whilst he awaited his trial to start. He was tried by the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Moghisei in fall 2009. Although he was acquitted from the charge of insulting the Supreme Leader, a charge that resulted from a speech he had given at Mir Hossein Moussavi’s campaign headquarters two weeks prior to the disputed elections of 2009, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. This was for “attempting to disrupt public order” by giving interviews to Persian-speaking media outside of Iran and publishing statements made by reformist presidential candidates. Judge Moghisei also sentenced him to 74 lashes for writing an article promoting Moussavi, and not Ahmadinejad, during the elections.

He appealed but before the appeals court’s had issued its verdict, he crossed the Iranian border, eventually making his way to Germany, where he now lives and works as a journalist.