1. Mohsen Sazegara is an Iranian journalist and pro-democracy political activist.
11 Facts About Mohsen Sazegara
1. 2.
Mohsen Sazegara was the founder of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
3.
Mohsen Sazegara held several offices in the government of Mir Hossein Mousavi.
4.
Mohsen Sazegara applied to become a candidate for President of Iran in the 2001 election but was declined.
5.
Mohsen Sazegara earned his master's degree in history at Shahid Beheshti University in Iran, and completed his doctoral thesis on religious intellectuals and the Islamic revolution at the University of London 1996.
6.
Mohsen Sazegara's drive to amend the constitution gained strong support among many students.
7.
On February 18,2003, Mohsen Sazegara was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence and held for five days, during which he protested by hunger strike.
8.
Mohsen Sazegara's arrest was criticized by the journalism associations the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which together represent over 18,000 publications in 100 countries.
9.
Mohsen Sazegara launched an Internet petition that gained the signatures of over 35,000 people.
10.
In March 2005, Mohsen Sazegara left the UK for the United States to be a visiting scholar at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
11.
In 2009, Mohsen Sazegara appealed for Iranian dissidents to avoid fragmentation and unite behind former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.