Monday Feb. 13, 2006
News update- Roozonline :
In 34 days, Ganji should be released !

Masumeh Shafiei the wife of Ganji met him last week . That day was Ganji's 157 days in solitary confinement and today it is in 164 days that he has spent in solitary confinement, and yet there are people in the Islamic Republic who have said that : " In Islamic Republic , we do not have torture , we do not have political prisoner".

Mrs . Shafiei together with her children and the mother of Ganji met him in the prison and all of them became deeply worry about the situation of this imprisoned journalist , here is her report:
On the evening of Monday Feb. 6, 2006 after 17 days we meet with Mr. Ganji, He is still in solitary confinement with maximum security , Unfortunately his physical situation has become worse , up to now it is 157 days that he is in solitary confinement, He has developed many physical condition by not recieving enough nutrient food and ..........

March 21st will mark the end of Ganji's 6 year prison term and all of us are looking forward for that day. And now 34 days have left to that day , and we have to see what the judges plan is ?

End/
IRAN WATCH CANADA
Link to this news in Farsi:
http://r0ozonline.com/01newsstory/014028.shtml

News: Akbar Ganji is nominated for Martin Ennals Award 2006

Original Message -----
From: Observatory urgent appeals
To: Canada - International Freedom of Expression Exchange
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 6:04 AM
Subject: The Observatory: Press release: Announcement of the nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2006
THE OBSERVATORY FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS (FIDH-OMCT)


PRESS RELEASE

Announcement of the nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2006


Geneva-Paris, February 13, 2006. The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, are pleased to announce that the following four persons were selected as nominees for the 2006 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA)*.

- Mr. Akbar Ganji (Iran), a journalist at the daily newspaper Sobh-e-Emrooz, detained since 2000 at the Evin Prison in Tehran for having written numerous articles denouncing the involvement of the Iranian regime in the assassination of political opponents and intellectuals in 1998. Mr. Akbar Ganji was sentenced in July 2001 to ten years’ imprisonment on the charges of “undermining national security and propaganda against institutions of the Islamic State”. In July 2005, Mr. Ganji was hospitalised at the Milad Hospital in Tehran after more than two months on hunger strike, to which he finally put an end in the night of 20 to 21 August 2005. During his hospitalisation, he was beaten by his guards in order to persuade him give up his views and promise his allegiance to the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei. As he refused, he was sent back to prison on 3 September 2005, whereas he remained extremely weak both physically and psychologically. He was placed in solitary confinement in a special wing of the Evin Prison, where he might be subjected to acts of torture (See Observatory Annual Report 2004, Urgent Appeals IRN 001/0004/030.3, 030.4, 030.5, 030.6, 030.7, 030.8 and 030.9 and Open Letter to the Iranian authorities, 28 October 2005).