Arrest for exposing corruption, 2008

Hashemi, along with a number of student activists from Zanjan University, was arrested in July 2008 for exposing the moral corruption of Hassan Madadi, then vice chancellor of Zanjan University, and for writing about widespread protests at the university.

"We decided to arrest him after we collected evidence,” Hashemi said in an interview about exposing Zanjan University’s vice chancellor, who was accused of sexually harassing and abusing female students. “So we recorded a video with the collaboration of a female student in the vice chancellor’s office. Other students helped and broke down the door and arrested him. The news of the incident spread very quickly and widely via social media and became a very big issue. The students gathered on the same day and a protest took place. The sit-in lasted for about a week during final exams.”

Hashemi was transferred to the Zanjan Central Prison after enduring 15 days in solitary confinement in the Zanjan Intelligence Office detention center, and was later released on bail.

Regarding the situation in Zanjan Central Prison, he said: "I was in a ward with seven murderers who harassed me for several days, threating to rape and kill me. Fortunately, the warden of Zanjan Prison was an honorable man and when I protested about these problems, he sympathized, and moved me to a better ward where the majority of the prisoners were financial convicts."

Alireza Firoozi, a journalist and human rights activist, and Bahram Vahedi, then secretary of the Zanjan University’s Islamic Association of Students, were other detainees in this case.

"All those involved in the discovery and exposing of the corruption were arrested," Hashemi said in an interview about the situation of detainees in the case. “Some of the people who participated in the sit-in were arrested as well. Eight people were charged in this case for different reasons. But the charges were exactly the same. Several different trials were held. Some had no role in exposing the case and arresting the vice chancellor. They had graduated and were not at the university at all at the time of the incident but had joined the sit-in later and gave speeches. They were arrested and charged as well. The outcome was prison and being banned from education. A few were suspended. Alireza Firoozi and I among them."

Trial and sentence, 2011

Hashemi’s hearings on the charge of "acting against national security through illegal assembly" for publishing the video and exposing moral corruption were held in a secret trial in the Revolutionary Court.

He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment, which was reduced to six months imprisonment and two years suspended imprisonment on appeal. He was transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran on May 28, 2011 to serve his six-month sentence.
Hashemi left the country in 2011 after completing his sentence.

About Sorena Hashemi

After being charged for exposing moral corruption of the vice chancellor of Zanjan University, Hashemi was suspended. The suspension continued for ten semesters after he was released on bail and eventually he was expelled by the order of the disciplinary committee of the Ministry of Science.

While this case was still open, Hashemi was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence, in November 2009, in protest against the results of Iran's contested 2009 presidential election.

He was released from Ward 209 of Evin Prison after about 20 days in detention.

After his release, he decided to leave Iran with Alireza Firoozi, but he was arrested by Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents as they traveled to Urmia by bus.

"They had closed all the crossings in the area to arrest us," Hashemi told Journalism is Not a Crime. “Our cell phones were under surveillance. That's why I gave my phone to a friend of mine and told him to be in Tehran while I was travelling. When we were arrested, one of the officers said that my action had misled them."

He was transferred to Ward 2A of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran and interrogated for about nine days.

In an interview with Journalism is Not a Crime, Hashemi said that, during the interrogation, he was beaten and tortured by Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents and interrogators. He also faced charges such as "propaganda against the regime," "acting against national security," and "conspiracy against the regime."

After completing his six-month sentence in the Zanjan University case and before receiving a verdict for his other cases, Hashemi left the country in 2011.