Ali Younesi Transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj
14-August-2025
Category: Prisoners
13 August 2025
News category: Prisoners
Breathing in Confinement – Imprisoned student Ali Younesi was transferred from Qom Prison to Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on 13 August 2025.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, on Wednesday, 13 August 2025, political prisoner Ali Younesi was moved from Qom Prison to the public ward of Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj.
Aida Younesi, sister of Ali Younesi – a distinguished student and political prisoner – announced on her personal X (formerly Twitter) account on Wednesday that her brother, after enduring extremely harsh conditions in Qom Prison for a month and a half, had been transferred to the public ward of Ghezel Hesar Prison.
Previous reports indicate that this computer engineering student from Sharif University of Technology had earlier been moved from Evin Prison to Greater Tehran Prison and subsequently to Qom Prison, following Israeli airstrikes on Evin. According to a recent interview with Reza Younesi, Ali’s brother, he was held in Qom Prison in the worst conditions, confined in a small cell with two other prisoners and allowed only 20 minutes of outdoor time per week.
Recently, in a new case opened against him during his imprisonment, Branch 29 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Ali Younesi to a total of six years and three months in prison, social restrictions, and exile.
Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student and winner of an astronomy Olympiad medal, were arrested without a warrant and violently beaten by Ministry of Intelligence agents on 10 April 2020 before being transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison. The judiciary spokesperson accused them of collaborating with the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), an allegation the Younesi family has denied.
In the initial trial, the two students were sentenced to 10 years in prison for destruction and arson of public property, five years for assembly and collusion, and one year for propaganda against the state. This verdict was upheld in the appeals court; however, in March this year, their lawyer, Mostafa Nili, announced that the Supreme Court had accepted their request for retrial, reducing the most severe sentence to six years and eight months.
Ali Younesi has won the silver medal in the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2016, the gold medal in the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2017, and the gold medal in the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in China. His family and supporters have repeatedly stressed the need to uphold his legal and human rights.