Ahmad Batebi

Ahmad Batebi (; born July 25, 1977) is an Iranian activist who was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. During his studies at the University of Tehran he gained international fame for his appearance on the July 17, 1999, cover of The Economist magazine, holding up a shirt splattered with the blood of a fellow protester.

The photo, which has been called "an icon for Iran's student reform movement", was taken during the Iranian Student Protests in July 1999 in Tehran. Following its publishing, Batebi was arrested, tried in closed-door proceedings, found guilty of "creating street unrest", Less well-known are persistent reports of torture and ill-treatment of Batebi in prison and his resulting poor physical and mental health. While temporarily released from prison to receive medical attention, Batebi was assisted by the KDPI, to flee Iran for Iraq. He finally entered the United States on June 24, 2008, on humanitarian parole.

The protest

The student protests of 1999 began on July 7 with peaceful demonstrations in Tehran against the closure of the reformist newspaper, Salam. This was followed by an attack on a student dormitory that night by vigilantes and riot police in which a student was killed. This sparked six days of demonstrations and rioting in which at least three more people were killed and more than 200 injured.

A photojournalist for Jame'e newspaper, Jamshid Bayrami, took the Economist cover photo then. In the photograph, Batebi waves a bloody T-shirt above his head.

To staunch the bleeding, Batebi removed his friend's shirt to put pressure on the wound. He then helped transport his friend to a medical facility. Returning to the protest with the bloody shirt, he displayed it to the protesters to warn them of the shooting.

He was one of four people who received a death sentence in a closed-door trial by a Revolutionary Court on charges relating to "creating street unrest" and "agitating people to create unrest," Batebi, in an open letter addressed to the judiciary, wrote that he had been beaten in his "testicles, legs, and abdominal area. When I protested, they answered that this is the land of the Velayat and that I should be blinded and not live here." Following the strokes, Batebi reportedly told his father in a telephone call on February 22 that the prison authorities do not care about him and that if he dies, his father should "hold a celebration of my life, rather than a funeral". He was further assisted by the KDPI and the Kurdish underground network who moved him to the northwestern border with Iraq and then to Arbil.

Mazahery reported his critical situation in Arbil to the United States government, which accepted his entrance to the US under "humanitarian parole". Although Sweden had granted him asylum through UNHCR, after consulting his friends and lawyer in the US, Batebi preferred to reside there. On June 23, 2008, Batebi left Iraq for the United States. After a short airport transit through Austria, he arrived in Washington Dulles International Airport on June 24, 2008, where officials escorted him from the National Security Council from his plane to the international section of the airport, where White House officials transferred his custody to Mazahery.

Aftermath Following his escape to the U.S., Batebi appeared in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) Persian TV in which he explained the story of his escape. He announced that he intended to represent Iran's human rights activists in the U.S. Some also criticized him for his frequent presence on VOA programs. Batebi was eventually hired by Voice of America Persian TV.