Ruth Comerford

BBC

A well-known Iranian human rights activist has killed himself in protest at what he called the dictatorship of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a post on social media, Kianoosh Sanjari said he would take his own life if four political prisoners were not released by 19:00 local time (15:30 GMT) on Wednesday.

His death was confirmed hours later by fellow activists.

In a post before he died, he said he wished that "one day Iranians" would "wake up and overcome slavery".

Sanjari was a vocal critic of Iran's leaders and advocate for democracy.

"No one should be imprisoned for expressing their opinions," he said before he died.

"Protest is the right of every Iranian citizen."

On Wednesday morning, he had written: "If Fateme Sepehari, Nasreen Shakrami, Tomaj Salehi and Arsham Rezaei are not released from prison by 19:00 today ... I will end my life in protest against the dictatorship of Khamenei and his partners."

All four were arrested for their support and involvement in the wave of unprecedented protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in 2022 after being detained by Iran’s morality police.

Sanjari was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for his political activism between 1999 and 2007.

He left Iran in 2007 and received asylum in Norway, before joining US broadcaster Voice of America's Persian service in Washington DC.

He returned to Iran in 2016 to be with his parents, and was arrested and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in Evin prison, where political prisoners are often imprisoned.

He was released on bail in 2019 on medical grounds, and subsequently taken to a psychiatric hospital.

He told local media he was given electric shocks, chained to a bed and injected with substances.

"Kianoosh Sanjeri is not just a name, it is a symbol of years of pain, resistance and struggle for freedom," freedom of speech activist Hossein Ronaghi posted on X.