For more than two decades, Kianoosh Sanjari (pictured) sought civil rights in Iran, defying the regime when it arrested him and put him into psychiatric institutions.

Last Wednesday, in his final act of dissent, Sanjari threw himself from a commercial building in central Tehran.

Hours earlier, the 42-year-old journalist posted that he would jump if the regime did not release four political prisoners, including rapper Toomaj Salehi and democracy activist Fatemeh Sepehri, by that evening.

Sanjari was first arrested at the age of 17, protesting a crackdown on student activists, and placed in solitary confinement in . For more than 20 years, he was repeatedly detained.

Undaunted, he documented his experiences in interviews and videos on his social media accounts. He was harassed, humiliated, and threatened with sexual assault. He spent around nine months in solitary confinement, enduring “white torture,” during a two-year sentence.

“The Islamic Republic ruined the days of my youth, as it did to millions of others,” he said. “Days that could have been filled with passion, happiness and sweetness were spent in prison, doing irreversible damage to my body and soul.”

Last Wednesday evening, he stood on the edge of the Tehran building and posted a photo of the street far below. He expressed his hope for an Iran in which people were no longer imprisoned for their beliefs.

Then he leapt.

“The Islamic Republic is directly responsible for Kianoosh’s death,” says long-time friend and fellow activist Kourosh Sehati. “He wanted the regime gone; he wanted the release of the political prisoners.”

“The Islamic Republic Ruined The Days of My Youth”

In 2007, having served a two-year prison sentence, Sanjari sought refuge in Norway. In the following year, he moved to the US, obtained political asylum, and worked with the Voice of America broadcasting service.

The journalist also contributed to the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, which documents human rights violations in Iran. Executive director Roya Boroumand said he was an inspiring figure “fighting for the rights of other prisoners and against the death penalty”.

“Kianoosh is yet another young person from our homeland whose death is the responsibility of the Islamic Republic,” Boroumand says.

In March 2016, he returned to Iran because of homesickness and concern for his ailing mother. Within two months, he was arrested and sentenced to 11 years in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and “assembly and collusion against national security”.

He recalled, “I told my interrogator, let me remain in love with my country — don’t send me to prison.”

Sanjari served five years and was transferred to State psychiatric facilities at least six times.

In 2022 and 2024 he left Iran for the US. Both times, he soon found he could not stay away.

He wrote of his ordeal:

I tolerated all the difficulties of the past five years [in prison], fought back and lived on hope, whether I was in solitary confinement on Ward 209 for the third time or during that one week when my hands and feet were handcuffed to the bedposts in Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital, when I reflected on how I was living the most horrifying days of my life in my own homeland.

This was true even later, when I was hospitalized next to the most distraught psychiatric patients and subjected to electroshock therapy. Yes, nine times they used electroshock therapy on me. They’d anaesthetize me and give an electric shock to my brain so as to wipe my memories.

They were wiped out, but only for a few days. Each time I triumphed over the nightmare through my faith in justice, regained my hope in life, and returned to life with indescribable joy.

But in the end, he reflected, “The Islamic Republic ruined the days of my youth, as it did to millions of others. Days that could have been filled with passion, happiness and sweetness were spent in prison, doing irreversible damage to my body and my soul.”

On Friday, Sanjari was buried in Tehran. Security forces limited attendance to a few family members, cordoning off the area in the cemetery and blocking a large crowd of mourners.