(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC of International PEN has been informed that final verdicts have been reached in the trials of writer, editor and lawyer Mehrangiz Kar and publisher Shahla Lahiji. Both their sentences have been reduced to six months’ imprisonment, calculated as time served (two months’ imprisonment) plus a 500,000 rial (approx. US$285) fine. A human […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC of International PEN has been informed that final verdicts have been reached in the trials of writer, editor and lawyer Mehrangiz Kar and publisher Shahla Lahiji. Both their sentences have been reduced to six months’ imprisonment, calculated as time served (two months’ imprisonment) plus a 500,000 rial (approx. US$285) fine.
A human rights lawyer, writer and editor of the now-banned “Zan” literary review, Kar was arrested on 29 April 2000 with Lahiji, writer-publisher, translator, and Director of Roshangaran, a prominent publishing house of women’s books. They were charged with “acting against national security” for participating in the Berlin conference held on 7 to 9 April at the Heinrich Böll Institute, and detained in Evin Prison until they were both released on bail on 21 June 2000. On 13 January 2001, they were each sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, but remained free pending appeal.
Kar is currently in the U.S. receiving medical treatment for breast cancer. Lahiji lives and works in Tehran.
