(RSF/IFEX) – Although several imprisoned journalists have been released on bail in recent weeks, on 23 April 2002, RSF noted its grave concern about another journalist, 71-year-old Siamak Pourzand, who is ill and whose family has not had news of him in several weeks. In addition, RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said he was “outraged” at […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Although several imprisoned journalists have been released on bail in recent weeks, on 23 April 2002, RSF noted its grave concern about another journalist, 71-year-old Siamak Pourzand, who is ill and whose family has not had news of him in several weeks.
In addition, RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said he was “outraged” at the “perverse” failure to condemn Iran for the first time in 19 years at the just-ended United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva. “Everyone knows the regime holds freedom of expression up to ridicule on a daily basis,” he noted.
Twelve journalists are in jail in Iran, making the country the largest prison for media workers in the Middle East. RSF has placed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official guide of the Islamic Republic, on its list of international press freedom predators.
Pourzand’s family has not had news of him since his sister visited him at the Amaken Detention Centre, near Tehran, in early March, when he seemed very ill. On 8 March, he phoned his daughter in the United States to confirm that his trial for subversion had begun two days earlier. He added, “you can consider me dead from now on.”
He told the government daily newspaper “Iran” that he accepted all the charges against him and that he had no defence. RSF said at the time that it was worried about psychological pressure to make him confess. The verdict in his trial is expected shortly.
Pourzand was seized by security police on 29 November 2001. The authorities said nothing about his disappearance and during his first four months in a secret place of detention, he had no access to a lawyer or medical care. As head of Tehran’s artistic and cultural centre, he was also a cultural commentator for several reformist newspapers that have since been shut down.
