Tell HN: A hacker's life is in danger, your awareness may be life saving

957 points

4 years ago

It's been a month that Jadi (real name: Amir Emad Mirmirani), an Iranian geek, has been imprisoned in Iran's most notorious prison called Evin in Tehran.

In Iran, he is one of the most famous people active in the field of programming and computer education. In his personal blog[0], he has been writing about technology and society for years. He has also a YouTube channel[1][2] to teach and encourage Iranians to programming and Linux, and a podcast[3] that has been explaining technology and science news along with his comments for several years. All this in a country with a dictatorial government where standing in the right place has a heavy price.

His arrest occurred on October 5, a few days after the recent nationwide protests[4] began in Iran. Arrest at home with beating. The reason for this is not yet clear, but it is probably due to his efforts to increase awareness of the society about Iran's internet censorship system, and his positions against a company called ArvanCloud. Many claim this company help the government of Iran in implementing the internet censorship's system (something like Great Firewall of China). In Jadi's own words, this company has made it possible for the government to turn the Internet into an intranet at any moment and block people's access to international services. Something that happens in every demonstration in Iran including right now.

The reason I am writing here is to raise awareness about him, which may lead to his release. All this may be nothing more than a false hope, but it is what I can do. From the news he covered in his podcast, it could be guessed that he is one of the regular readers of Hacker News. Perhaps hearing your support here will boost his morale behind bars in Evin. The prison which is also known as Evin University due to the number of educated political prisoners [5].

[0](Persian) https://jadi.net/

[1](Persian) https://www.youtube.com/jadimirmirani

[2](English) https://www.youtube.com/geekingjadi

[3](Persian) https://castbox.fm/channel/%D9%BE%D8%A7%D8%AF%DA%A9%D8%B3%D8%AA-%E2%80%93-%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%86%D8%AA-%7C-%DA%A9%DB%8C%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF-id22150?country=us

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahsa_Amini_protests

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evin_Prison

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