Faraj Sarkohi

Faraj Sarkohi (Persian: فرج سرکوهی, born 3 November 1947,[1] in Shiraz) is an Iranian literary critic and journalist.

He studied Persian literature and social science at the University of Tabriz, participating in the group around Samad Behrangi.

In addition to being Adineh’s editor in chief, he published many reviews and essays and interviewed some important figures of Iranian life, like Hossein Alizâdeh, Ahmad Shamloo, Houshang Golshiri, Alireza Espahbod, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Mehdi Bazargan and Parviz Natel-Khanlari.

[4] Due to his function as editor in chief of Adineh, and his participation in the writers association, Sarkohi was exposed to continuous repression on the part of the regime and was imprisoned temporarily a number of times.

After 48 days of captivity and torture in an unknown place, he was released and forced to hold a press conference, announcing he had returned to Iran after his trip to Europe.

Owing to the efforts of his wife, international protests by numerous human rights organizations,[6] and involvement from some Western governments (for example German Secretary of State Klaus Kinkel wrote two letters to his Iranian colleague Ali Akbar Velayati about Sarkohi[7][8]), he was not executed but sentenced to one year of prison.

[4][9][10] According to some sources, Sarkohi’s imprisonment and its circumstances were associated with the Mykonos restaurant assassinations case, which was tried in Berlin at that time.