Amir Farshad Ebrahimi

Paramilitary career

Born in the Gholhak district of Tehran, he joined Basij at the age of 12 and fought in the Iran–Iraq War. After graduation from Alborz High School, he joined the Qods special forces, one of the five forces of Sepah, and graduated from the Imam Ali military school of the Qods with a major in psychological warfare engineering. He was among the first series of Sepah officers who were sent to North Korea.

Ebrahimi started Ansar-e Hezbollah along with other veterans following the end of the Iran-Iraq War to "defend" the Islamic revolution "against Western influence." He became the managing editor of the group's own newspaper, and "spent a lot of time together" with Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's Supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He says he quit Ansar-e Hezbollah after the July 1999 student riots in Tehran. Ansar-e Hezbollah used violence against students but Ebrahimi decided, "No, Ansar-e Hezbollah is wrong, you the students are right."

Media career

Ebrahimi also got a bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997 with a cinema major.

He was the media attaché of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon from 1997 to 1998. After coming back from Lebanon, he went to the law school and got his master's degree in International Law from Tehran University in 2002. He received a Doctoral Degree In Human Rights From Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey in May 2006.

"Confessions"

Ebrahimi appears in a controversial videotape in 2000, apparently confessing to a link between the hardline Iranian political and religious leaders and violent actions of an Iranian group known as Ansar-e Hezbollah.

Ebrahimi had previously held close connections to the members of this group and revealed a number of their inside secrets in the video tape. After the circulation of this tape, human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi was accused by an Iranian court to have been involved in making it. She was vindicated and released from prison after a brief period.

Ebrahimi was also sentenced and spent two years in prison.

Identifying paramilitaries

As of 2009 he is identfying members of plain-clothed men who beat up Iranian protesters of the disputed election. Ebrahimi "names and shames those he recognizes on the Web", publishing their names and phone numbers and sometimes even their addresses, "so people in their neighborhood know what they are doing." Some are Ansar-e Hezbollah members and former friends.

Works

He has written two books, From Sarband to Blindfold and Republic of Ghosts, both in Persian, which were banned in Iran after publication. As of February, 2006, he is living in Germany and writing his memoirs.

On March 27, 2008, wire reports stated that he was in danger of extradition from Turkey to Iran, on charges that he "collaborated with peace activists in the flight of Ali Reza Asgari from Iran." His participation in several other events that have embarrassed Iran—including unconfirmed reports that he provided intelligence on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program to the United States—raise the likelihood that he will be imprisoned and/or executed if sent to Iran.