Akbar Ganji (Persian: اکبر گنجی English pronunciationⓘ, born 31 January 1960 in Tehran)[2][3] is an Iranian journalist, writer and a former member of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

[6] While in prison, he issued a manifesto which established him as the first "prominent dissident, believing Muslim and former revolutionary" to call for a replacement of Iran's theocratic system with "a democracy".

In December 2000, after his arrest (see below), Akbar Ganji announced the "Master Key" to the chain of murders was former Intelligence Minister Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian.

He "also denounced by name some senior clerics, including Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi for having encouraged or issued fatwas, or religious orders for the assassinations".

On 16 July 2001, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment on charges of "collecting confidential information harmful to national security and spreading propaganda against the Islamic system".

"[5] He was represented by a group of lawyers, including Dr. Yousef Molaei, Abdolfattah Soltani (who was arrested and put in solitary confinement in 2005 on unknown charges), and the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Shirin Ebadi.

In his recent leave in June 2005, Ganji participated in interviews with several news agencies, criticizing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, and asking for his office to be put to a public vote.

Ganji was released from prison in poor health on 18 March 2006, after serving the full term of his six-year sentence, according to his family and various count-downs set up on many Iranian weblogs.

In April 2008, Ganji's first book in English appeared in Boston Review Books/MIT Press: The Road to Democracy in Iran, with an introduction by Joshua Cohen and Abbas Milani.

Despite repeated invitations, he refused to meet with any member of the administration of US President George W. Bush on the principle that the struggle for democracy in Iran must be waged from within the country, without foreign governmental support.

Ganji declared that his role was as a dissident and journalist rather than the official voice for a specific opposition party or faction within Iran, which he explained was one reason for his refusal to meet with US political leaders and officeholders.

During his visit he criticized the Iraq War, asserting that rather than undermining the current Iranian regime, it had bolstered its capacity to repress and terrorize its population.

He staged a hunger strike outside of the United Nations headquarters to highlight the plight of Iranian political prisoners, and to bring international attention to the oppressive conditions felt within Iran.