(RSF/IFEX) – On 6 November 2002, RSF welcomed the 4 November release of Abdollah Nouri, managing editor of the daily newspaper “Khordad”, after three years’ imprisonment. However, the organisation also condemned the arrest, on the same day, of journalist Abbas Abdi, director of the Ayandeh public opinion firm. “We are delighted that Nouri has been […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 6 November 2002, RSF welcomed the 4 November release of Abdollah Nouri, managing editor of the daily newspaper “Khordad”, after three years’ imprisonment. However, the organisation also condemned the arrest, on the same day, of journalist Abbas Abdi, director of the Ayandeh public opinion firm.
“We are delighted that Nouri has been released after being unjustly sentenced to five years in prison,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “But we are very disturbed by the arrest of Abdi and fear that other journalists may be detained in the coming days. We call on the European Union, which will soon be holding talks with Iran about human rights, to exert pressure on the authorities.” Ménard called for the release of Abdi and nine other journalists who are currently being held in Iran’s prisons.
Abdi, a former editor of the now-closed daily newspaper “Salam”, has worked for many pro-reform newspapers. He was arrested at his home on 4 November. Judge Said Mortazavi, who heads Court 1410 (known as the press court), also ordered a search of his residence.
Abdi was accused of “having received money from either the US polling firm Gallup or a foreign embassy”. This follows the official news agency IRNA’s 22 September publication of an Ayandeh poll indicating that 74.4 percent of Iranians favoured a resumption of ties with the United States. Abdi was jailed for 11 months in 1991 for criticising then-president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme spiritual authority, pardoned Nouri, a reformer who is close to President Mohammad Khatami, on 4 November, after his brother was killed in a road accident. He was arrested on 27 November 1999. That same day, the Special Religious Court sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment and fined him 15 million rials (approx. US$5,600; 5,600 euros). His newspaper was also closed.
Nouri was accused of 15 offences, including “anti-religious propaganda”, “insulting Ayatollah Khomeini”, “undermining public opinion” and “having links with the United States”. At the time, he denounced the verdict as illegal and accused the court of violating the constitution.
