(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, RSF protested the sentencing of Fatemeh Govarai to six months’ imprisonment and 50 lashes. “This sentence is medieval. We ask you to have it rejected upon appeal,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. Moreover, RSF noted that Iran is the biggest jail […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, RSF protested the sentencing of Fatemeh Govarai to six months’ imprisonment and 50 lashes. “This sentence is medieval. We ask you to have it rejected upon appeal,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. Moreover, RSF noted that Iran is the biggest jail in the world for journalists, with nineteen media professionals behind bars.
According to information collected by RSF, on 12 October 2001, Govarai, from the banned weekly “Omid-é-Zangan”, was sentenced to six months in jail and 50 lashes for “lies and defamation.” In an interview with the weekly “Vlayat”, the journalist had denounced the attack of the Bassidjis (Islamist militia) and the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards) during an authorised meeting of the chief of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Yazdi. Govarai’s lawyer has appealed the sentence.
The journalist, who is close to dissident movements, was arrested on 11 March, when security agents raided a meeting at the home of Mohammad Bastehnaghar, a prominent dissident, where nearly thirty people were gathered (see IFEX alert of 15 March 2001). Govarai was released the following day. On 12 March, the head of the Tehran Revolutionary Court stated that “the detainees were conspiring to overthrow the Islamic government.” The group’s activities have been banned since March.
