Prominent Activist Sepideh Gholian was Re-arrested within Hours after her Release from Prison.

Prominent activist and political prisoner Sepideh Gholian (28) was released on March 15 after four years and seven months. Gholian posted on her Instagram page to announce her release.

"I was released from the Seven Hills case. This time I came out hoping for the freedom of Iran!" she wrote in the post, which showed a video of her leaving the prison dressed in traditional Baluchi clothing as she showed her support for the ongoing revolution in Iran by shouting: "Khamenei, the tyrant, we will bury you under the ground." 

Hours following her release, Gholian's family car was attacked by several cars and security agents on their way back to their hometown in Khuzestan between the cities of Qom and Arak when Gholian was separated and kidnapped from her family. Since her re-arrest, Gholian has informed her family members that she has been transferred to section 209 of Evin Prison, where political prisoners are held. 

Before her imprisonment, Gholian worked as a freelance journalist with various publications. Gholian was initially arrested on November 18, 2018, for reporting on labor protests organized by the workers union of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-Industrial Company for one month. Following her release in 2018, Gholami gave Amnesty International an account of her torture while in custody. Gholian was severely beaten, humiliated with flogging, and threatened with sexual assault. 

On January 19, 2019, Iranian state television aired what it claimed was a documentary that showed Gholian and other activists had confessed to taking part in alleged Western-backed efforts to overthrow the government. Gholian countered those accusations by saying she had been forced and beaten to make a false confession and was re-arrested on January 20, 2019.