Emadeddin Baghi

Emadeddin Baghi is an investigative journalist and human rights defender who co-authored, alongside Akbar Ganji, the landmark chain murders investigations in Sobh-e Emroz, Neshat, and Fath. He was a key source alongside Saeed Hajjarian. His September 1999 article in Neshat criticising capital punishment was the stated pretext for that paper's closure and for Shamsolvaezin's prosecution. Baghi himself was arrested on 29 May 2000 and sentenced to five and a half years in prison for 'undermining national security,' later reduced on appeal to three years. He went on to found the Society for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights in Iran, becoming a leading human rights NGO figure.