(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Iranian President Mohamad Khatami, RSF expressed indignation about an attack on the editor of the reformist daily “Sobh-e-emrouz”, Said Hajarian. RSF asked the president to do everything in his power “to find and punish those responsible for this attempted murder”. The organisation recalled that “since the start of 1999, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Iranian President Mohamad Khatami, RSF expressed indignation about an attack on the editor of the reformist daily “Sobh-e-emrouz”, Said Hajarian. RSF asked the president to do everything in his power “to find and punish those responsible for this attempted murder”. The organisation recalled that “since the start of 1999, eight journalists from the reformist press had been arrested, and three are still in jail”.
According to information collected by RSF, two men on a motorcycle opened fire on Hajarian on the morning of 12 March 2000. He was taken to hospital, where his condition was said to be serious. Eight legal complaints were filed against the editor after his newspaper reported on the “serial killing” of opponents of the Iranian government. Sohb-e-emrouz had accused the secret service of being behind the murders. Two secular nationalist politicians, Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar, and three writers campaigning for freedom of speech, Majid Sharif, Mohamad Mokhtari and Mohamad Jafar Puyandeh, were murdered at the end of 1998 (see IFEX alerts). Over a year later, no suspects have been brought before the courts.
