Imprisoned Iranian journalist appeals to Supreme Leader

Mohammad Nourizad

Mohammad Nourizad, Iranian journalist and filmmaker who has been imprisoned for over four months for writing a number of critical letters to the Supreme Leader, has now written another letter to Ayatollah Khamenei from Evin Prison

Addressing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Nourizad writes that the “people are lost.” He asks: “Which people are you the leader of? I do not see many people around you. Leadership, over a minority, is no cause for pride.”

He states that his reason for writing another letter for the Leader is because despite everything, he still believes that “if there is going to be any change in the situation of the country, it can only take effect if the Supreme Leader initiates it.”

Nourizad warns that the Iranian society is on the verge of a “vast explosion.” He writes: “We and you have lost the people. The peace and quiet that you see in them has only been established through the force of arms.”

Nourizad refers to Ayatollah Khamenei’s naming of the New Year as the Year of Double Toil and Effort and suggests that it should have been named the “Year of National Reconciliation” in order to recover the lost national unity.

Nourizad urges the Supreme Leader to acknowledge his years of commitment to the system and the leadership by visiting his family and calls on Ayatollah Khamenei to judge him openly for whatever wrong he believes he has done.

Mohammad Nourizad has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison by the preliminary court along with fifty lashes.