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Alert

Eleven journalists jailed, eight others taken in for questioning in 1999

(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran,
RSF has protested the sentencing of Abdollah Nouri to five years'
imprisonment for "anti-Islamic propaganda", "insulting Imam Khomeini" and
"destabilising public opinion".


The Special Court for Clergy also fined the director of the independent
daily "Khordad" fifteen million Rials (approx. US$8,600; 8,500 euros) and
barred him from working as a journalist for five years. The court ordered
the newspaper's closure. RSF asked for "the annulment of this sentence"
since the Special Court for Clergy does not have the competence to try press
offences.

Moreover, RSF protested the "three-year prison sentence against Machallah
Chamsolvaezine, for having published articles in which he opposed the use of
the death penalty in Iran. Chamsolvaezine, editor-in-chief of the daily
'Neshat', which is banned since 5 September 1999, was fined twelve million
Rials (approx. US$6,900; 6,800 euros) by the Press Court."

RSF recalled that "since the beginning of 1999, ten other journalists have
been jailed and eight have been taken in for questioning. Two remain in
jail: Mohsen Kadivar, sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment in April
for 'propaganda against the regime', following the publication of his
articles favouring the separation of politics from religion, and
Hechmatollah Tabarzadi, editor-in-chief of 'Hoviyat-é-Khich', arrested in
June for having published a religious person's letter accusing conservatives
of murdering intellectuals and journalists at the end of 1998. Tabarzadi is
allegedly still detained without having been referred to the court."

RSF expressed the view that these sentences are flagrant violations of press
freedom, which is guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, ratified by Iran.