Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh

Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh was a prominent author and translator who, along with Mohammad Mokhtari, served on the organising committee of the Iranian Writers' Association. He was a signatory of the 1994 'We Are the Writers!' open letter demanding an end to censorship. On 8 December 1998 — just days after Mokhtari's disappearance — Pouyandeh vanished. His body was found strangled in the Shahriar district west of Tehran on 11 December. He and Mokhtari were the last known victims of the chain murders. The subsequent investigation traced both killings to the same Ministry of Intelligence unit. Lawyer Nasser Zarafshan represented Pouyandeh's family; his wife Sima Sahebi was herself arrested for publishing a letter criticising the authorities for blocking memorial services.