About Mahmudali Chehregani Mahmudali Chehregani (Persian: محمود علی چهرگانی) (also known as Mahmudali Chohraganli) is a hard-line campaigner born in Shabestar, Iran, in 1958 and is the founder (1995) and leader of the Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement (SANAM or GAMOH), a separatist political group that claims to represent the interests of Iran's estimated 12 to 23.5 million Azerbaijani minority. Chehregani was a professor of linguistics at Tabriz University.Chehregani's father was arrested and tortured on charges of treason and separatism during the era of the Shah. Chehregani himself entered politics after his course teaching Turkish linguistics was closed by Iranian authorities upon learning that these meetings were covers for separatist activities. . In 1995 he ran for the parliamentary elections of Iran in the Tabriz region, he voted in with 600,000 votes however, was refused entry into parliament and was arrested. Chehregani was arrested by agents of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence in December 1999, effectively preventing him registering as a candidate for the Majlis (Parliament) election within the specified time. He was tried by a revolutionary court on charges including smuggling shampoo, and sentenced on 18 February 2000 to six months' imprisonment. Amnesty International believed that "he has been imprisoned to suppress the non-violent expression of his conscientiously held beliefs, and as such was a prisoner of conscience".. Chehregani went on a hunger strike on May 19, in protest at his unfair trial. He was transferred to the prison hospital on July 23, suffering from internal bleeding, and subsequently released from Tabriz prison on July 27, 2000, after six months in detention, when his condition had stabilised. Iran lifted a travel ban on Chehregani in 2002, allowing him to meet with high-level government figures in Turkey and the United States. Since 2002 he lives in exile in the United States. Chehregani has so far not been able to bring evidence that he has a PhD from Tehran University. On his website he claims that he received a degree from Tehran University, yet another biography claims that he received his doctorate from Baku State University. In an interview with HRW organizations he alleges that he is a doctor, but so far Mr. Chehregani has not shown that he indeed obtained a PhD from Tehran University.