Due to his activism, he was arrested numerous times by Iranian police. On August 22, 2009, he was arrested again in the context of the unrest after 2009 presidential election. In early March 2010 he was released on bail after spending about three months in solitary confinement. He was charged with Moharebeh for alleged "contact with unspecified foreign groups and working to undermine the Islamic system" and “insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei.” Maleki was hospitalised several times for a heart attack and other physical problems including prostate cancer during his detention. He was also reportedly denied access to an adequate treatment, and later (September 2011), wrote a brief report to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran on the tortures he had suffered during his prison terms for which he was subsequently interrogated and received a notice banning him from travelling abroad.