Roya Saberi Negad Nobakht (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: رویا صابری نژاد نوبخت) (born c. 1967) is an Iranian-British housewife who was imprisoned after she returned to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

to visit her family. While living in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, she wrote on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

that Iran was "too Islamic". The Iranian government put her in prison and accused her of "insulting Islamic sanctities", a crime that carries the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. Roya was born in Iran. In 1998 she emigrated to England. Since 2008, she has lived in

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

, near

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. In 2013 Roya returned to Iran to visit her family. Two weeks after she arrived, she flew to the city of

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...

and was arrested by cyber police at the airport. Roya's husband, Daryoush Taghipoor, found out his wife was in prison when he traveled to the Middle East to look for her.

Arrest

Roya was taken to Tehran and held at the notorious Evin Prison. In June 2014, Roya was tried by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Seven other Facebook users were arrested along with Roya. The other seven names are Amir Golestani, Masoud Ghasemkhani, Fariborz Kardarfar, Seyed Masoud Seyed Talebi, Amin Akramipour, Mehdi Reyshahri, and Naghmeh Shahisavandi Shirazi. On 15 June 2016 five of the defendants called the "Facebook activists" were released from prison. After applying "Article 134", her sentence was reduced to five years, however she is still in Evin Prison. She is in poor health and has frequent seizures. Iran is accused of using innocent civilians as hostages to get payments from western countries. In January 2016, the U.S. government paid Iran $1.7 billion in cash. At the same time, Iran released five American citizens.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nobakht, Roya 1967 births British people imprisoned in Iran Living people Inmates of Evin Prison Iranian emigrants to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom

Arrest

See also

References