Simay Azadi – Ali Younesi, an elite student at Sharif University of Technology sentence by the regime to 16 years in prison on charges of supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), has rejected a judiciary “pardon” offer in a new letter written from Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj.
Younesi was arrested in April 2020 alongside fellow elite student Amir Hossein Moradi. The regime later charged both students with links to the PMOI.
According to the letter, during a family visit on Monday, May 11, 2026, prison authorities handed Younesi an official notice dated February 22, 2026, informing him that the remaining seven months of his prison sentence had been “pardoned” under a judiciary amnesty decree.
In response, Younesi wrote:
“I have never requested a pardon and never will. Freedom is a stolen right; we do not beg for a stolen right, we fight to reclaim it.”
Referring to recently executed PMOI prisoners – Vahid Baniamerian, Pouya Ghobadi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Babak Alipour, Abolhassan Montazar, Mohammad Taghavi – he added:
“I have role models: six proud cellmates who were sent to the gallows. Every day and every moment, their memory is alive for me and their voices remain in my ears. They did not bargain over their lives—shame on me if I bargain over my freedom.”
Younesi specifically referenced Vahid Baniamerian, one of the PMOI prisoners executed in April 2026, quoting from his defense statement:
“Vahid Baniamerian said in his defense: ‘Is it us who should defend ourselves, or you?’”
Younesi then added:
“‘Is it us who should forgive, or you?!’ Forgiveness belongs more than anyone else to the grieving mothers and fathers.”
Addressing the families of those executed, he wrote:
“Whatever suffering remains—prison, exile, hardship—is nothing but duty. It is with the strength of your children’s sacrifice that we fight, and we will remain steadfast in this struggle. Fighting for the freedom of the Iranian people is not a source of regret or suffering, but the greatest source of honor.”
The letter comes amid growing international concern over the treatment of political prisoners in Iran and follows a recent wave of executions targeting PMOI members, other political prisoners and January protesters.