(RSF/IFEX) – On 9 July 2002, RSF expressed its outrage over the confirmation of an 11-year jail sentence against 71-year-old journalist Siamak Pourzand, for alleged subversion. “The Iranian authorities have once again shown their great contempt for freedom of expression,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. The organisation was also very concerned, he said, about the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 9 July 2002, RSF expressed its outrage over the confirmation of an 11-year jail sentence against 71-year-old journalist Siamak Pourzand, for alleged subversion.
“The Iranian authorities have once again shown their great contempt for freedom of expression,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. The organisation was also very concerned, he said, about the number of journalists and editors being summoned by the authorities in recent weeks.
Ten journalists are currently jailed in Iran, making it the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East. The country’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is officially called the “Guide of the Islamic Revolution”, is included on RSF’s list of international press freedom predators.
The Iranian media reported on 7 July that the Tehran Appeals Court had confirmed the 11-year jail sentence Pourzand received on 3 May for “spying and undermining state security” and “having links with monarchists and counter-revolutionaries”.
Pourzand was seized by security police on 29 November 2001 and held in a secret place for four months without access to a lawyer or doctor. He headed Tehran’s artistic and cultural centre and also was a cultural commentator for several reformist newspapers that have since been shut down. He was also frequently heard on foreign radio stations.
On 14 June, Pourzand’s sister told ISNA, one of Iran’s official news agencies, that she was very concerned about his health and conditions of detention. She was allowed to see him at the end of May, at the Amaken detention centre, near Tehran, but family members have otherwise rarely been given permission to visit the journalist.
In the past two months, many editors have been summoned by Court 1410, known as the “press court”, including the editors of the newspapers “Mardomsalari”, “Nowroz”, “Aftab-e-Yazad” and “Toseh”.
Other journalists have been summoned by the Adareh Amaken section of the capital’s police force, which usually handles “social” offences and is considered close to the intelligence services.
Alireza Farahmand, a journalist with “Neshat” and “Tous” (both suspended publications), Iraj Jamshidi, editor-in-chief of “Eghtesad-e-Asia”, Esmail Jamshidi, managing editor of the magazine “Gardon”, and Nushabe Amiri and Hoshang Asadi, of the film magazine “Gozarech-e-Film”, have each been questioned for several hours, on several occasions, about their supposed ties with what the regime terms “the subversive cultural front”, to which Pourzand is alleged to have belonged.
