Ahmad Batebi
| Ahmad Batebi | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
July 25, 1977 Shiraz, Iran |
| Known for | Imprisonment after July 1999 Iranian Student Protests |
Ahmad Batebi (Persian: احمد باطبی; born July 25, 1977) is an Iranian activist who was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. During his studies at the University of Tehran he gained international fame for his appearance on the July 17, 1999 cover of The Economist magazine, holding up a shirt splattered with the blood of a fellow protester.
The photo, which has been called "an icon for Iran's student reform movement", was taken during the Iranian Student Protests in July 1999 in Tehran. Following its publishing, Batebi was arrested, tried in closed-door proceedings, found guilty of "creating street unrest", and sentenced to death.
This was reduced to 15 years after domestic and international outcry. Less well-known are persistent reports of torture and ill-treatment of Batebi in prison, and his resulting poor physical and mental health. While temporarily released from prison to receive medical attention, Batebi was assisted by the KDPI, to flee Iran for Iraq. He finally entered the United States on June 24, 2008 on humanitarian parole. He was then granted asylum status by the United States government.
The student protests of 1999 began on July 7 with peaceful demonstrations in Tehran against the closure of the reformist newspaper, Salam. This was followed by an attack on a student dormitory that night by vigilantes and riot police in which a student was killed. This in turn sparked six days of demonstrations and rioting in which at least three more people were killed and more than 200 injured.
A photojournalist for Jame'e newspaper, Jamshid Bayrami, took the Economist cover photo at that time. In the photograph, Batebi waves a bloody T-shirt above his head.
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Wikipedia