Araz News:  On 26 August 2015, one of the most renowned Azerbaijani Turk human rights activists and journalists, Mr Said Matinpour, was finally set free. He was serving an eight-year term in Evin Prison of Tehran, after having been convicted on the grounds of ”maintaining links to foreigners” and ”propaganda against the Islamic Republic’.

His release has strengthened the deeply rooted Southern Azerbaijani non-violent national movement.

A philosophy graduate from the University of Tehran, prior to his imprisonment, Mr Matinpour was part of the editorial team of two local weekly newspapers, ‘Yarpaq’ and ‘Moj-e-bidari’.

He was arrested on May 25, 2007, after he attended a seminar in defense of Azeri-speakers in Turkey. Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Salavati sentenced him to eight years in prison on charges of contact with foreigners and propaganda against the state.

Mr Matinpour’s detention has attracted the international community’s attention: various petitions were signed, campaigns for his liberation were set up and numerous reports were written, among others, by Amnesty International.