Sanaz Yekta, a former political prisoner, freed after three weeks in detention

Sanaz Yekta, a constitutionalist civil activist and Jewish citizen living in Tehran, has been released after more than three weeks in detention. On 19 October 2026 she announced on her Instagram page that on 26 September she had been arrested at the Intelligence Ministry's follow-up office on a charge of "propaganda against the system" and forcibly taken to a hospital, and that a few hours earlier she had been discharged from the hospital on a judge's order.

Third arrest in two and a half years

With the message, Yekta published a screenshot of her judicial case page, in which the reason for opening the case is recorded as "preliminary investigations" and the charge against her as "propaganda against the system of the Islamic Republic". She has given no details about why she was forcibly taken to the hospital or about the conditions in which she was held during this time.

This is the third time since March 2024 that the Islamic Republic's security apparatus has arrested this activist. According to the Human Rights in Iran website, she was first arrested in March 2024 for raising an Israeli flag in Tehran and was sentenced on charges of "propaganda in favor of Israel" and "propaganda against the system". After about six months in prison in Evin prison, she was released in September 2024 because of illness.

Raid on her home and a five-year prison sentence

IRGC intelligence agents arrested her again on 26 March 2025. According to a source close to her family, the agents raided her home, searched it, seized some personal belongings and frightened her sick mother; the family did not know where she was being held for some time.

According to Radio Free Europe, at the end of 2025 Yekta was sentenced to five years in prison on a charge of "insulting the leadership", but later, because of her physical condition, she was released from Evin prison before the end of her sentence.

Belongings that were never returned

A few days before her latest arrest, Yekta told Radio Farda that, despite a judge's order, neither the Intelligence Ministry nor the Intelligence Organization of the Law Enforcement Force (FARAJA) had returned any of her seized belongings, including gold and silver jewelry and a smartwatch. She had said: "I really don't know what I should do to get my belongings back."

Human rights activists regard the retention of political prisoners' property after their release as a common way of prolonging their punishment.

A pattern of pressure on activists and minorities

Sanaz Yekta's case is an example of the double pressure on citizens who are targeted both for their political beliefs and for belonging to religious minorities. In recent years the Islamic Republic has turned the charge of "propaganda in favor of Israel" into a tool for suppressing critics, and has met activists who speak of friendship between the people of Iran and Israel and of the return of constitutional rule with repeated arrests and heavy sentences. DIAR will follow her case and those of other political prisoners.