Kianoush Sanjari, a former journalist for the Persian section of Voice of America and a former political prisoner, ended his life on the evening of November 13, 2024, in an act he described as a protest against the continued imprisonment of political prisoners in Iran and the “dictatorship of [Ali] Khamenei and his affiliates.”
Approximately 17 hours prior to his suicide, Sanjari wrote on his X account: “If Fatemeh Sepehri, Nasrin Shakarami, Tomaj Salehi, and Arasham Rezai are not released from prison by 7 PM today, Wednesday, November 13, 2024, and their release is not published on the judiciary’s news site, I will end my life in protest against Khamenei’s dictatorship Khamenei and his affiliates.”
A close associate of Kianoush Sanjari confirmed the news of his passing and defended the cause of free information, stating that the journalist lost his life immediately after his suicide attempt.
Kianoush Sanjari was a former journalist for the Persian section of Voice of America, a human rights activist, and a former political prisoner. He returned to Iran in September 2016 after years of media and human rights work abroad. During his stay in Iran, he was arrested multiple times, subjected to severe physical and psychological torture, sentenced to long-term imprisonment, and experienced recurrent summons and threats from security agencies even after his release from prison.