Mohsen Mirdamadi

He was among the organizers of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.[1] He was the governor of the bordered Khuzestan Province in the last couple of years of the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq. He has earned his PhD in Foreign Relationships from the University of Cambridge in 1997. He was elected as a member of the parliament of Iran (the 6th Majlis after the Iranian 1979 revolution) from 2000 until 2004, in which he chaired the parliament's Commission of National Security and Foreign Policy. He was the Secretary-General of "the largest pro-reform party" in Iran, Islamic Iran Participation Front[2] (IIPF) since 11 August 2006 until the front was disbanded by an Iranian court.[3] He was sentenced and put to 6 years of prison, among other leaders of reformist parties, after the 2009 Iranian presidential election. He is now the deputy secretary general of the "Ettehad-e Mellat" political party, which is now the largest pro-reform party in Iran.

In 2000 he ran for parliament as a reformist on a platform of freedom and restoring the rule-of-law to Iran, easily winning his seat. In an interview in Tehran with American journalist Robin Wright he explained

We always wanted a country that had independence, freedoms, and was an Islamic republic ... But today our emphasis is on freedoms ... The future now depends on what the people want, not what a few politicians or religious leaders prefer. Leaders in all ruling classes should be checked by the people .... there are – and should be – many different interpretations of Islam. And the people have the right to listen to those different interpretations ... No one has the right to impose his ideas on everyone else.[4]

As the chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the 6th Majlis, Mohsen Mirdamadi hosted several diplomats visiting Iran. He also led a few Iranian delegates visiting other countries and officials[5] and led the first Iranian delegate that visited the EU Parliament since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[6] In 2002, he had some negotiations with the EU Chief of Policy Foreign Union European, Javier Solana and gave a speech in the European Union Parliament.

Mohsen Mirdamadi was the director of the Nowruz newspaper which covered Iranian reformists points of view. In 2003, the Iranian Judiciary Power held over 8 sessions of trial, and sentenced Mohsen Mirdamadi to 6 month jail while he was still a member of the parliament and still chaired the Commission of National Security and Foreign Policy. The court also banned the Nowruz newspaper and stopped its publishing.[7]

He was also banned from running for re-election in the parliament, in the February 2004 along with 80 other incumbents, and along with 2500 non-incumbents by the Council of Guardians.

Although he is the secretary general of the largest reformist party in Iran, in December 2006, he harshly criticized the university students who raided and protested Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech in Amirkabir University. (see: December 2006 student protest)

He has been described as "a small man" with "a neat salt-and-pepper beard."[8]

Human Rights Watch reported that he was arrested in June 2009, amidst the 2009 Iranian election protests.[9] After his arrest he was held in solitary confinement for 110 days. He finished his six-year sentence in Evin prison, and was released on 2017.

• Mr. Mirdamadi! Please apologize! (Rooz daily in Persian)
• A letter from Amirkabir University students (in Persian)