A month after the arrest of the well-known Iranian photojournalist Majid Saeedi, the Islamic Republic's security and judicial bodies have still not said where he is being held or on what charge he was detained. Security forces went to the photographer's home in Tehran on Wednesday, 9 September 2026, and took him away.
His brother Mehdi Saeedi announced the arrest on Instagram and, according to Radio Farda, wrote that the family has no information about the reason for the arrest or where he is held. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), citing his brother, also reported that agents came to his home around noon and that Majid Saeedi has been denied access to a lawyer and contact with his family. On Saturday, 10 October, IranWire reported that a month on, his place of detention is still unknown.
Reaction of press freedom organisations
In its report of 28 September on the widening crackdown on journalists in Iran, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for Majid Saeedi's immediate release and for clarity on where detained journalists are held. In the same report, the organisation noted that the journalist Abbas Abdi was sentenced to one year in prison and the newspaper Etemad was suspended for two months, and that Siamak Rahmani, editor of a news website, was fined on charges of "propaganda against the system".
The photographer's detention continues as the Islamic Republic has stepped up pressure on journalists and civil activists in recent weeks, including the summoning of Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, a teachers' union activist, to the Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office.
Majid Saeedi's history of arrests
Majid Saeedi has been arrested several times before because of his work. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he was arrested at his home during the crackdown on journalists after the 2009 election. In August–September 2021 he was also arrested while photographing Afghan refugee camps in the city of Khoy in West Azerbaijan.
According to Radio Farda, during the 12-day war between Israel and the Islamic Republic the photographer said security forces treated him and his colleagues not as journalists but as targets.
In 2013 Majid Saeedi received the Lucas Dolega Award for his photo series "Life in War", which documents the lives of people in Afghanistan, and he is regarded as one of Iran's internationally recognised photographers.
A month after his arrest, Majid Saeedi is held at an unknown location, without a lawyer and without any charge being announced.
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