Elite students Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, who have been imprisoned, have released a letter on the eve of the fourth anniversary of their arrest. Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, who were arrested on April 7, 2020, are imprisoned in Evin Prison.

In their letter, these two elite students elucidated their four-year path of imprisonment and resistance. Amir Hossein Moradi and Ali Younesi emphasized that traversing this path required momentary decision-making for them.

In a part of their letter, they stated: “Looking at what people lose, what we lost wasn’t significant anymore, and overcoming other conditions wasn’t too difficult. Prison is the price of this choice and its litmus test.

We have experienced that those who desired less for themselves, and chose resolute perseverance, endured tougher conditions. This is the primary factor distinguishing between those who can’t endure even a month of prison and those who endure 10, 15, 20, or even 25 years of prison with resilience and resistance.”

The complete text of Amir Hossein Moradi and Ali Younesi’s letter is as follows:

Letter of Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi on the Fourth Anniversary of Their Arrest

April 7, 2020, was the day we were thrown into another world. The past world, the world of university and Olympiads, was exciting and pleasant, where days were spent happily and joyfully alongside friends of the same age and mindset.

But the new world was a world of solitary confinement and interrogation, a harsh and rugged world, a world devoid of friendship where every friend was an enemy, a world where there was no room for thought but where what we thought was threatened with death, a world where basic rights were confiscated.

The moment of arrest, the moment of entering a new world, was a moment of choice, resistance or submission. A choice between university and academic success, and the smooth path to top universities in Europe and America or prison and years spent losing youth and missing out on academic and educational opportunities.

But how can one choose academic opportunities when there are children who are deprived of education without ever having made a choice and how can one think about a life of prosperity and high-paying jobs when many cannot afford even daily meals?

Looking at what people lose, what we lost wasn’t significant anymore, and overcoming other conditions wasn’t too difficult. Prison is the price of this choice and its litmus test. We have experienced that those who desired less for themselves and chose resolute perseverance endured tougher conditions.

This is the primary factor distinguishing between those who can’t endure even a month of prison and those who endure 10, 15, 20, or even 25 years of prison with resilience and resistance.

And we must make this choice every day, a choice inspired by the hundreds of thousands who have trodden this path and stood firm in their choice until the end.

A choice that more than ever puts students in the face of it, those who have more to lose but also have a louder voice.

Those who can choose to stay and reclaim can today not only accompany the people in their uprisings but also initiate them. By choosing not to ignore those who suffer more and have less voice. A choice that, with its cost, can stand alongside the people, be part of history, and be the beginning of movements.

On the fourth anniversary of our arrest, we reiterate our choice, which is to resist no matter how long this prison continues.
We believe that freedom for Iran is near.

Amir Hossein Moradi and Ali Younesi
April 2024

About Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi

Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student, and Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student, two elite students of Sharif University of Technology, were arrested on April 7, 2020, by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence without presenting a judicial warrant. Their arrest was accompanied by beatings. These two students were then transferred to solitary cells in Evin Prison.

On November 22, 2021, Amnesty International, in an open letter addressed to the judiciary of the ruling clerical regime in Iran, warned of the imminent execution of two elite students Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi and demanded their immediate release.

Finally, these two political prisoner elite students, after 808 days of imprisonment in closed wards and solitary cells of Evin Prison, were transferred to the public wards of Evin on June 26, 2022, with heavy sentences of 16 years in prison.

Ali Younesi, along with his father Mir Yousef Younesi, is currently imprisoned in Evin Prison. Mir Yousef Younesi was arrested since April 2020 and was sentenced to prison in a summary trial.

These two elite students of Sharif University of Technology are imprisoned in Evin Prison while there have been significant international pressures for their release.