(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, RSF protested the arrest of Ezatollah Sahabi, editor of the newspaper “Iran-e-Farda”, which has been banned since 23 April 2000. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked Ayatollah Shahroudi to do everything in his power to ensure that the journalist is immediately released. The […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, RSF protested the arrest of Ezatollah Sahabi, editor of the newspaper “Iran-e-Farda”, which has been banned since 23 April 2000. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked Ayatollah Shahroudi to do everything in his power to ensure that the journalist is immediately released. The organisation recalled that “since 1 January 2000, seven journalists have been arrested, most of them a few days after parliament approved a law increasing penalties for press offences”. Nine journalists are currently imprisoned in Iran.
According to information collected by RSF, Sahabi was arrested on 26 June, after the Tehran Revolutionary Court gave orders for him to be taken into custody. The journalist was arrested six days after his home was searched on orders of the same court. The judiciary was looking for documents concerning the journalist’s participation in a conference held in Berlin on 7 and 8 April, which was regarded as “anti-Islamic” and “anti-revolutionary” by Iranian authorities. Sahabi had already been summoned by a court upon his return from Germany on 30 April, and was later released on bail. The editor of “Iran-e-Farda” is also a member of the Movement For Freedom, a reformist political party tolerated by the authorities, which supports President Mohammad Khatami.
