I’m elated to hear that Hossein Derakhhshan, otherwise known as Hoder online, is finally free from prison in Iran. I used to read his blog and I would get worried whenever he talked about being harassed by the Iranian gov’t while in Canada. I remember him talking about his trip back to Tehran and worrying about it, but I was shocked when he was thrown in prison for a nearly 20-year sentence.

A couple years ago a friend was working on a campaign to try and get him freed and asked for my help. I said yes and we talked about the case and he had to remind me at that point Hoder had been put away for 4 years, while I had thought it only happened a year or so before. I felt devastated for a few days after as the whole thing felt so hopeless.

I was ecstatic to hear he has been freed today after six years. I went to look up his Twitter and Facebook accounts and found out it appears he joined Twitter two weeks before his trip, in October 2008. He has only tweeted five times, three times leading up to the trip, one tweet when he got to Tehran, then six years later upon his release.

I hope he gets back to Canada safely soon and can start talking about it. It was a horrible thing and I can’t imagine the horrors he has endured but I’m curious what kept him going and how he finally convinced them to free him.