Catalan PEN named the Iranian writer Mehdi Bahman an honorary member of the organization in January 2023, after he was sentenced to death by the Iranian regime for his work for interfaith dialogue and for the rights of religious minorities in his country. One month later, thanks to the global campaign that brought international pressure, his sentence was commuted to five years in prison.

As we have learnt through the Iranian activist Ryma Sheermohammadi, who is in contact with people close to Bahman, the writer is seriously ill. He was taken to hospital due to his health condition, but was returned to prison after twenty-four hours.  He is currently in quarantine in Evin prison, without access to medicine and in terrible condition. Bahman suffers from various heart and stomach ailments and injuries to his knees and back, pathologies that are not being treated.

We want to denounce the conditions of his imprisonment and demand from the Iranian authorities his immediate and unconditional release. We will continue to campaign for the freedom that corresponds to him as a person who has committed no other crime than that of defending the dialogue between the confessions and nationalities of his country and of the Middle East.