(RSF/IFEX) – In an 8 July 1999 letter to Mohammad Khatami, the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, RSF protested the banning until further notice of the daily “Salam” by a verbal judicial order. Furthermore, Morad Veissi, a “Salam” journalist, was arrested on 7 July. There is no information currently available about his case. […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In an 8 July 1999 letter to Mohammad Khatami, the president of
the Islamic Republic of Iran, RSF protested the banning until further notice
of the daily “Salam” by a verbal judicial order. Furthermore, Morad Veissi,
a “Salam” journalist, was arrested on 7 July. There is no information
currently available about his case. In its letter, RSF requested that “the
journalist be released and the newspaper’s ban be cancelled, allowing the
daily to resume publication.”
On 7 July, this leading moderate newspaper was suspended after a complaint
from the intelligence ministry over the printing of a secret report on the
investigation into last year murders of intellectuals. RSF stated that “as
the newspaper’s director, Mohamad Khoeinia, is an ayatollah, it is the
Religious Court that ordered the banning.” RSF pointed out that “this action
is totally illegal, for this court has no competence to judge a press
offence.”
In its letter, RSF reminded the president that two journalists of the
reformist weekly “Hoviyat-é-Khich” were arrested on 16 and 19 June, and are
still under interrogation at the Intelligence Ministry. RSF is “deeply
worried by the allegation of the use of torture” against the journalists,
who have not been allowed visits by their lawyer in the twenty-four days
since their detention (see IFEX alerts of 7 July, 22 June and 17 June 1999).
