[2] He was arrested in July 2009 during the post-presidential-election crackdown and was serving a three-year sentence on charges of "insulting Iran's supreme leader" and "spreading propaganda against the regime.

[3] For three years, he was active in the movements that had begun after the Revolution to increase the rate of literacy, and to reconstruct the rural areas (Jihad of Construction).

After Khatami resigned, Saharkhiz moved to the United States for five years to run IRNA's office in New York.

[3] When Khatami was elected President in 1997, Saharkhiz returned to Iran and was put in charge of domestic publications under the new minister Ata'ollah Mohajerani.

[3] After Saharkhiz left the ministry, he founded a daily called Akhbar-e Eqtesad (economic news), which had a reformist and critical view of the management of Iran's economy.