Abdollah Noori Hosseinabadi ( Persian : عبدالله نوری حسین‌آبادی English pronunciation ⓘ ) is an Iranian Shia cleric and reformist politician. Despite his "long history of service to the Islamic Republic," he became the most senior Islamic politician to be sentenced to prison since the Iranian Revolution , when he was sentenced to five years in prison for political and religious dissent in 1999. He has been called the " bête noire " of Islamic conservatives in Iran.