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Alert

Jailed blogger taken to sit university exams in handcuffs

(RSF/IFEX) - Blogger Mojtaba Saminejad, who has been in prison since February 2005, was taken in handcuffs to sit his exams at Tehran's Azad University on 21 January 2006. Reporters Without Borders welcomed the fact that the Iranian courts have allowed him to continue his university course but repeated its call for his release.

"We have never stopped our condemnation of the unfair conviction of this young student who has been imprisoned for nearly a year for posting a few messages on the Internet. We urge the authorities to show leniency. Bloggers like Mojtaba represent no threat to Iranian society. On the contrary, they support the emergence of a citizen's debate," said the organisation.

The weblogger was photographed inside the Tehran university as he was going to take his exam and the photo was then posted on his former blog: http://man-namanam.blogspot.com.

He was first arrested in November 2004 for speaking out against the arrest of three colleagues. While he was in prison, his website was hacked into by people linked to the Iranian Islamist Hezbollah movement. On leaving jail, he relaunched his blog at a new address (http://8mdr8.blogspot.com), which led to his re-imprisonment, on 12 February 2005.

Mojtaba was sentenced in June 2005 to two years in prison for "insulting the Supreme Guide". One month later he was given an extra ten months in prison for incitement of "immorality".