Prisoner of conscience Abbas Lisani is detained in Ardebil Prison in the north-west of Iran. He has received a one-year prison sentence for “spreading anti-government propaganda”, and faces other trials apparently related to his peaceful political and cultural activities on behalf of the Iranian Azerbaijani minority community. He is reportedly in poor health.

Abbas Lisani was arrested on 3 June 2006, shortly after participating in a demonstration in Ardebil on 27 May. He was held detained for about two days in a detention facility run by the Ministry of Intelligence in Ardebil, before being transferred to Ardebil prison. His family did not know his whereabouts until 7 June, when, in a phone call lasting only a couple of minutes, he told them