(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called for the immediate release of independent journalist Ensafali Hedayat, who was arrested at his home by order of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court, in northwestern Iran, on 16 January 2004. Hedayat is employed by a number of reformist dailies. “We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Ensafali Hedayat, who […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called for the immediate release of independent journalist Ensafali Hedayat, who was arrested at his home by order of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court, in northwestern Iran, on 16 January 2004. Hedayat is employed by a number of reformist dailies.
“We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Ensafali Hedayat, who was arrested for no reason. We note that, with 10 other journalists imprisoned, Iran is the Middle East’s largest jail for journalists. We call on the Iranian authorities to free all of them,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard.
At the time of his arrest, Hedayat had just returned from Germany, where he attended the inaugural conference of the Union of Iranian Republicans in Berlin from 8 to 10 January. He was accredited and covered the meeting as a journalist. The authorities, who searched his home, seized personal documents, included data CDs and his computer’s hard drive.
Hedayat was previously arrested on 16 June 2003 at the University of Tabriz, where he was covering student demonstrations (see IFEX alerts of 14 July, 24 and 19 June 2003). Accused of “inciting students to revolt”, he spent more than 20 days in solitary confinement. After his release on 14 July, he wrote a letter to President Khatami in which he spoke out against his prison conditions and the security forces’ use of torture against detainees.
