(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called for the immediate release of Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, a former chief political columnist for the reformist daily “Etemad” (“Trust”), who was arrested at his Tehran home on 27 September 2004. The organisation condemned the arrest as a violation of Iranian and international law. Ebrahimi was arrested by “individuals claiming to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called for the immediate release of Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, a former chief political columnist for the reformist daily “Etemad” (“Trust”), who was arrested at his Tehran home on 27 September 2004. The organisation condemned the arrest as a violation of Iranian and international law.
Ebrahimi was arrested by “individuals claiming to be police” who did not have an arrest warrant, his wife, Sulmaz Sharifi, told the student news agency Isna. “They searched our home and asked my husband about his activities on various Internet sites. They said he would be released quickly, but did not explain the reasons for his arrest and, until now, I’ve not been able to speak to him.”
Ebrahimi previously worked for several other reformist newspapers that have since been closed, including the daily “Jomhouriyat”, which the judicial authorities banned on 18 July.
At least three journalists working for websites have been arrested in recent weeks. One journalist, Babak Ghafori Azar, was freed on 21 September, but two others, Hanif Mazroi and Shahram Rafihzadeh, remain imprisoned, apparently in connection with the blocking of the website Rouydad (http://www.rouydad.info) on 21 August, on the orders of the Tehran State Prosecutor’s Office (see IFEX alerts of 24, 14 and 10 September and 27 August 2004). Rafihzadeh was also the editor of “Etemad”‘s culture section.
In August, the authorities reinforced the ban on several pro-reformist websites. They have also been forcing Internet service providers to install filters to block access to pornography sites and some political sites in recent months.
Meanwhile, the families of three journalists imprisoned since June 2003 – Taghi Rahmani, of the weekly “Omid-e-Zangan”, Hoda Saber, of the monthly “Iran-e-Farda”, and Reza Alijani, editor-in-chief of “Iran-e-Farda” and winner of the 2001 RSF-Fondation de France award – have written an open letter protesting their prison conditions.
“We have had no news of them for three weeks,” the families said in their letter. “We are very worried. We don’t think it is normal that after 380 days in detention, including 135 spent in solitary confinement, these three illegally-held journalists should be placed in solitary confinement again.” Mohammad Sharif, the journalists’ lawyer, said he was only able to meet with them recently, his first such visit with his clients in over a year.
In a separate incident, Kivan Samimi Behbani, editor of the independent monthly “Nameh” (“The Letter”), and Lotfolah Meysami, editor of the monthly “Chashm Andaz” (“Panorama”), were summoned for questioning on 25 September 2004.
Behbani, who received his summons from the Tehran Court’s Sixth Division, was questioned about an article that is the subject of a complaint filed with the Prosecutor’s Office. “Nameh” has been the subject of several warnings from the Ministry of Islamic Guidance since the beginning of the year, and there are fears that the judiciary is about to shut down the monthly.
Meysami was summoned by the Tehran Court’s Third Division in connection with a judicial investigation of his newspaper. It is the court’s second such investigation of “Chashm Andaz”.
