(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the head of the magistracy, Ayatollah Sharoudi, RSF protested the sentencing of Abbas Rashad, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Amin-é-Zanjan”, to thirty lashes and a fine, and the three-year ban on his practising journalism. “This decision shows that the Iranian judiciary wants to gag the reformist press at all costs. […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the head of the magistracy, Ayatollah Sharoudi, RSF protested the sentencing of Abbas Rashad, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Amin-é-Zanjan”, to thirty lashes and a fine, and the three-year ban on his practising journalism. “This decision shows that the Iranian judiciary wants to gag the reformist press at all costs. This sentence is completely disproportionate,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “We appeal to you to cancel the decision,” he added.
According to information gathered by RSF, on 9 December 2001, an Iranian court sentenced Rashad, editor-in-chief of the reformist weekly “Amin-é-Zanjan” to thirty lashes and a fine equivalent to several hundred American dollars. The court also barred him from practicing journalism for three years. The journalist was charged with “insulting the justice department” in the western town of Zanjan. The weekly “Amin-é-Zanjan” was suspended on 30 October and its director, Jafar Karami, was sentenced to ninety-one days in jail for publishing articles “insulting the country’s most senior leaders and the Islamic government”. The sentence was commuted to a two-year suspended prison sentence because the journalist was maimed during the Iran-Iraq war (see IFEX alert of 31 October 2001).
RSF notes that Iran currently has the sad record of being the largest jail for journalists in the Middle East, with eighteen journalists behind bars. Most of them have still not been tried, despite their having already spent months in detention. Islamic Republic Guide Ali Khamenei is included on RSF’s list of the world’s thirty-nine press freedom predators.
