Mohammad Ali Abtahi

Early careers

Abtahi served in various governmental posts, including the President of Iranian Radio, Vice Minister of International Affairs in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and IRIB's representative in Lebanon.

Khatami's Government

In 1997, President of Iran Mohammad Khatami chose Abtahi as his first chief of staff. Abtahi held the position from July 10, 1997 to September 1, 2001.

On September 2, 2001, Abtahi was elevated to the post of the Iranian Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. He was the first cabinet member in Iran to write a weblog or have an Orkut account during his membership in the cabinet. He resigned from his post three times after the Iranian Majlis election of 2004, because of "differences in political viewpoints with the parliament's majority", and finally, on October 12, 2004, his resignation was accepted by President Khatami. He was followed by Majid Ansari, a previous representative of Tehran to the Parliament and a fellow member of the Combatant Clerics Society party.

The Daily Show appearance

Seyyed Abtahi appeared on The Daily Show with John Stewart in 2009, interviewed by Jason Jones. Abtahi is often called the "blogging mullah" along with Mehdi Karroubi who is referred to as the iron "shaykh of reforms" Seyyed Abtahi is active in the blogosphere and is the first member of an Iranian cabinet to keep a personal blog.

Arrests and confession

Abtahi's father, Ayatollah Hassan Abtahi is the author of several controversial books about Imam Mahdi. Seyyed Hassan's ultra-conservative religious and political views are very different from Mohammad Ali's, who is a liberal cleric. Seyyed Hassan was arrested recently for "suspicious organised activities". Mohammad Ali discussed this in a post to his blog titled Why don't I write about my father and brother's arrest?.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi was arrested on June 16, 2009 during the aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections and subsequent protests. He reportedly made a videotaped confession following his arrest, in which he stated that the opposition's claims of a stolen election were false, and that opposition leaders had conspired in advance to misrepresent the vote. According to the statement, former presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Rafsanjani had taken an oath not to abandon each other in their support for former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi as they prepared to stage a Velvet Revolution in order to avenge their defeat in Iranian presidential election, 2005. According to human rights groups, similar confessions by Iranian political prisoners are almost always obtained under duress.

In response members of his and other arrested reformists gathered at his home issued a statement denouncing his confession, saying “not only do we not accept the confession, we also know that Abtahi said these things due to a long period of imprisonment for the purpose of obtaining a confession.” In a court hearing, his wife Fahimeh Mousavinejad, dismissed her husband’s confession as false and "not at all in Mr. Abtahi’s style. ... As his family, we know the way he expresses himself. Many people have read his blog. The sentences he was using were not his own”.

Abtahi's photos from the trial show signs of probable use of torture during his imprisonment. Following Abtahi's record as the first Iranian cabinet member to blog while in office, on August 26, 2009, he also became the first known Iranian prisoner to blog while still at prison. A few days after that prison blog entry, however, his website was suddenly taken offline.

In November 2009, he was sentenced to six years in jail for the alleged intention to topple the government. He has since been freed.

Personal life

Mohammad Ali Abtahi was born in Mashhad. He is married to Fahimeh Mousavinezhad (daughter of one of his professors) and has three daughters, named Faezeh, Fatemeh, and Farideh. He is also the nephew of Abdolkarim Hasheminezhad.

Health issues

On 14 October 2013, Abtahi was hospitalized in Milad Hospital after he suffered a brain attack. Hours later, Abtahi's personal doctor confirmed that Abtahi's health was good.