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Alert

Political cartoonist arrested

(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to President Mohamad Khatami, RSF protested the "arrest of caricaturist Nik Ahangh-Kosar from the daily 'Azad'". In addition, RSF asked the president "to do everything in his power to assure the caricaturist's immediate release." Concerned by the attacks on the press by conservatives, the organisation recalled that during 1999, eight newspapers were banned, including five reformist papers. Seven journalists were arrested last year, including Abdollah Nouri, editor of the daily "Khordad", who was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for "antireligious propaganda" (see IFEX alerts of 3 December, 29 and 10 November 1999).


On 5 February 2000, Nik Ahangh-Kosar appeared before the Press Court. The court deemed his drawings, published in "Azad", to be "insulting" towards Mohammed-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, a religious conservative dignitary. One of the journalist's caricatures depicted the ayatollah as a crocodile, crying over his lot in life, threatened by the "writer-mercenary progressives". The political cartoonist was placed in provisional detention at the Evine prison.