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Alert

Journalist Massoud Bastani back in prison after a week of freedom, held with ordinary detainees

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has called for the immediate release of journalist Massoud Bastani, who was re-imprisoned a week after his 6 August 2005 release from Evin prison in Tehran and is now being held in Arak prison in central Iran, which is normally used for non-political prisoners.

Bastani spent two weeks in Evin prison for covering a demonstration in support of imprisoned fellow journalist Akbar Ganji, who was on hunger strike at the time.

"It is shocking that a prisoner of conscience has been placed with inmates held for ordinary crimes, as some of them could be dangerous or sick," the organisation said. "It is also unacceptable that a journalist is being punished for supporting a colleague who was on hunger strike. We call on the judicial authorities in Arak to stop harassing him."

Editor-in-chief of "Nedai Eslahat" (a daily that was closed by the authorities in 2003) and a contributor to such pro-reform newspapers as "Etemad", "Toseeh" and "Joumhoryat", Bastani's first run-in with the authorities was in 2003, when he was sentenced to six months in prison, 70 lashes and a five-year ban on practising journalism.

He wrote many reports about Ganji's hunger strike during the summer of 2005. In a 27 June release, RSF commented, "The authorities are not only content to let Akbar Ganji die, they are also arresting and harassing those who have the courage to defend him."

Meanwhile, Ganji's wife, Massoumeh Shaffii, told RSF by phone that she has just sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to coincide with the Iranian president's visit to New York for the UN summit. Thanking Annan for requesting Ganji's release, the letter informs him that Ganji was returned to prison on 3 September and that he is still not being allowed to receive visits (see IFEX alerts of 7 September, 22, 9 and 2 August, 27, 21 and 14 July, 16, 10, 9 and 3 June 2005, and others).