Akbar Ganji (اکبر گنجی‎) was born on January 31st, 1960 in Tehran, Iran.  He is an Iranian journalist and writer. He was the supporter of the Islamic revolution as a youth, but he became disenchanted in the mid-1990s and served time in Tehran's Evin Prison from 2001 to 2006 after publishing a series of stories on the murder of dissident authors known as the Chain Murders (قتلهای زنجیره ای) of Iran. Ganji was released from prison on March 18th, 2006.

Having been named honorary citizen of many European cities and awarded distinctions for his writing and civil, Ganji has won several international awards for his work, including the World Association of Newspapers, Golden Pen of Freedom Award, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression's International Press Freedom Award, the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, the Cato Institute Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty and the John Humphrey Freedom Award.

In June 2006 Ganji left Iran. Since then he has been writing and giving talks in Europe and North America, speaking out for the movement for democracy in Iran, and against any U.S. military attack on his country.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbar_Ganji