According to reports received by the Karun Human Rights Organization, Mohammad Ali Amouri-Nejad was returned to Sheiban Prison in Ahwaz on Sunday, December 14, 2025 (23 Azar), before completing his medical treatment, following only two weeks of medical furlough.
Mohammad Ali , an Ahwazi Arab political prisoner held in Ward 5 of Sheiban Prison, had been granted medical leave for the first time on Saturday, November 29, 2025 (8 Azar) after 15 years of imprisonment without any prior furlough.
Karun Human Rights Organization had previously reported that his temporary release was granted upon the posting of 12 billion tomans in bail. Amouri-Nejad suffers from multiple serious health conditions, including severe dental decay, gum inflammation, sinusitis, vision impairment, and internal medical disorders. Since his arrest in 2010, he had not been granted a single day of leave and has spent his entire sentence in Sheiban and Karun prisons in Ahwaz.
Born in 1977, Mohammad Ali Amouri-Nejad is a media activist and a graduate in Natural Resources Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology. During his university years, he contributed to the publication of the magazine Al-Turath. He was arrested in 2012 and initially sentenced to death on charges including “enmity against God (moharebeh)” and “corruption on earth (efsad-e fel-arz)”. This sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
His background includes teaching at high schools in Khalafieh (Ramshir) and co-founding the cultural institute “Al-Hiwar”, which operated with a permit from Iran’s National Youth Organization and was inspired by the Dialogue Among Civilizations initiative during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami.
In 2007, Amouri-Nejad sought refuge in Iraq, where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officially recognized him as a political refugee. However, due to illegal entry into Iraq, he was arrested and imprisoned for approximately five years before being extradited to Iran in 2011. Following his re-arrest, several members of the Al-Hiwar Institute were also detained. Two of its members, Hashem Shaabani and Hadi Rashedi, were secretly executed in Karun Prison in Ahwaz in 2014.
In May 2021, the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization reported that Amouri-Nejad, along with two other Arab political prisoners—Mokhtar Alboushoka and Qasem Sanjari—had been transferred to the prison infirmary after 19 days of torture in secret detention facilities run by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.
In June 2021, Amnesty International issued a statement expressing grave concern over his health condition and called for his immediate and unconditional release, as well as urgent access to adequate medical care.
