(RSF/IFEX) – On 17 May 2002, RSF expressed shock over the sentencing of Iranian journalist Siamak Pourzand, aged 71, to 11 years in prison and said it was very concerned about his plight. The journalist’s whereabouts are still unknown. “Once again, the Iranian authorities are showing their great contempt for human rights,” said RSF Secretary-General […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 17 May 2002, RSF expressed shock over the sentencing of Iranian journalist Siamak Pourzand, aged 71, to 11 years in prison and said it was very concerned about his plight. The journalist’s whereabouts are still unknown. “Once again, the Iranian authorities are showing their great contempt for human rights,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “The complete lack of information about such an elderly journalist, who is also very ill, is unacceptable. We demand that the authorities provide information on where he is being held.”
Iran holds the sad record of being the largest prison for journalists in the Middle East, with 11 media professionals behind bars. In the past month, four jail sentences have been imposed on journalists. RSF calls for their immediate release. Moreover, the country’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is on RSF’s list of international press freedom predators.
In a 15 May interview, Judge Jafar Sabri of Court 1610 told the daily newspaper “Iran” that Pourzand had been sentenced to 11 years in prison, not eight, as the Iranian press had reported. Pourzand was convicted on 3 May of having “undermined state security through his links with monarchists and counter-revolutionaries.” His court-appointed lawyer filed an appeal. The head of the Iranian prison system, Morteza Bakhtiari, said the journalist was not being held in any of the country’s prisons.
Iranian officials have made no comment in the wake of numerous protests by international human rights organisations and very few reformist newspapers have mentioned Pourzand’s plight.
Pourzand’s family has had no news of him since his sister visited him at the Amaken detention centre, near Tehran, in early March, at which time he seemed very ill. His sister was recently refused permission to visit by the authorities, who said he was too ill.
Pourzand was seized by security police on 29 November 2001. The authorities said nothing about his disappearance and during his first four months in a secret place of detention, he had no access to a lawyer or medical care. As head of Tehran’s artistic and cultural centre, he was also a cultural commentator for several reformist newspapers that have since been shut down.
