Sayyed Hadi Kasaeezadeh Mahabadi is a journalist who was sentenced to one year imprisonment and fined 4 million tomans for writing a report on corruption in the Iranian banking network. This sentence was confirmed by the Court of Appeals on May 31, 2020. Sayyed Hadi Kasaeezadeh is the son of Seyyed Akbar Kasaei, the founder and managing director of Imam Ali Charitable Foundation.

Kasaeezadeh’s trial was held in Branch 2 of the Tehran Criminal Courts. He was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of “spreading lies with the intention of disturbing the public mind” and a monetary fine of four million tomans on the charge of “disclosing [official] secrets.” The evidence cited in support of these accusations were posts and content that he had published on a Telegram channel called The Anti-Corruption Reporter.

Majid Motalebzadeh, another journalist and Kasaeezadeh’s partner, was also involved and sentenced as part of the same case.

The lower court’s sentence was confirmed in Branch 46 of the Court of Appeals for Tehran province and Kasaeezadeh was informed of the verdict on May 31, 2020.

Details of the case

Kasaeizadeh’s case came after a legal complaint was filed by Sarmayeh Bank, the Central Bank of Iran, Valiollah Seif, then president of the Central Bank, against Kasaeezadeh and his colleague Majid Motalebzadeh.

Following this complaint, Kasaeezadeh and Majid Motalebzadeh were arrested for the first time on October 23, 2017, by the judiciary's Information Protection Force on the orders of Jafari Dolatabadi, the former Attorney General of Tehran. This arrest warrant was issued by Branch 9 of the Culture and Media Courts. 

After their arrest, Sayyed Hadi Kasaeezadeh Mahabadi and Majid Motalebzadeh were transferred to the security ward of Evin Prison. They were released on bail 10 days later.

An informed source spoke to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) about the reason for their arrest, saying: “The accusations and sentence against them [Mr Kasaeezadeh and Mr Motalebzadeh] were based on information that they published in 2017 on the “The Anti-Corruption Reporter” Telegram channel about the financial corruption of Valiollah Seif, the former President of the Central Bank of Iran, and some managers of the Sarmayeh Bank.”

In mid-December 2017, with the end of their interrogations, Kasaeezadeh and Motalebzadeb were released on temporary bail of 200 million tomans until the end of the legal proceedings against them.

The trial for this court case was held in December 2018 in Branch 1060 of the Second Criminal Courts of Tehran, for government employees. According to the court’s verdict, Kasaeezadeh was sentenced to two years imprisonment on the charges of “spreading lies with the intention of disturbing public opinion.” He was also sentenced to pay a monetary fine of four million tomans on the charge of “disclosing confidential secrets.” This sentence was later upheld in the Court of Appeals.

Previous journalism work

Sayyed Hadi Kasaeezadeh Mahabadi began his career in journalism in 2005, working with the monthly magazine Rah-e Mofagh. Two years later, he became the director and editor-in-chief of the special issue edition, South Tehran, for the Etemad-e Melli newspaper. He has covered social, judicial and legal affairs as a journalist, editor and as editor-in-chief.

Kasaeezadeh also worked as the editor-in-chief of the Voice of Reform newspaper for nine months, from January 27, 2018.

Previous legal cases

According to the Tabnak Kerman website, Sayyed Hadi Kasaeezadeh Mahabadi has faced legal action “32 times” for his journalism. According to the news agency, Kasaeezadeh has faced legal complaints from plaintiffs including: the first deputy to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he was president; the president of the Central Bank of Iran during Hassan Rouhani's first presidential term, between 2013-2017; the Deputy Minister of Justice; the Deputy Mayor of Tehran; the Information Protection Organization of the Iranian judiciary; the Attorney General of Tehran; Bank Sarmayeh; President Hassan Rouhani himself; and numerous other government officials and municipal managers.

One of these 32 court summonses related to a complaint filed against him by the Office of the President of Iran in February 2020. This complaint was due to his publication of an article for which he received a sentence of 30 lashes of the whip.  

In June 2020, following a complaint from the Iranian judiciary, a criminal court in Tehran sentenced Kasaeezadeh to pay a fine of 5 million tomans in June 2020. This sentence was prompted by a report in the Tabnak newspaper. The then editor-in-chief of the Tabnak newspaper was also sentenced to pay a fine at that time.

Complaint from the Chief of Government Penitentiaries

In another court case from 2016, Sayyed Hadi Kasaeezadeh Mahabadi faced a legal complaint from Alireza Jamshidi, then the chief of Government Penitentiaries. 

While he was a senior editor at the Moj News Agency, Kasaeezadeh published documents which claimed that Jamshidi had illegally appointed a group of his relatives to senior management positions in a number of government agencies.

Following the publication of this report, the Moj News Agency was censured for six months by a court order. Kasaeezadeh resigned from his position as an editor at Moj and the news agency's managing director was also suspended from any media activity for a year.