Monday March 13,2006

Count down : 4 days to go to the freedom of Ganji !
IRAN WATCH CANADA; will continue to count down until the freedom of Ganji, the most brave journalist in the history of Iran!

Ganji will be released after 6 years imprisonment.

IRAN WATCH CANADA: Calls on all NGO's around the world that are defending Press Freedom, journalists, writers,bloggers and human rights defenders... to join to this count down!

People like Akbar Ganji the investigative journalist is needed to investigate about the corrupt political and socio- economic systems in the Middle East .

Background on Ganji:Akbar Ganji began a hunger strike on 11 June in protest at being denied the necessary medical care for chronic asthma, despite specialist recommendation that he be treated outside prison. He was eventually rushed to Milad hospital on 17 July, as his condition deteriorated. He ended his hunger strike in mid-August, after nearly 70 days. He had reportedly lost over 30kg, and had been moved to an intensive care unit a week before he resumed eating. Akbar Ganji, now aged 46, was arrested in April 2000, together with 17 other Iranian journalists and intellectuals who had taken part in a cultural conference in Berlin. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, which was reduced on appeal to six months, for "taking part in an offence against national security" and "propaganda against the Islamic system" (For details see EXTRA 43/00, MDE 13/07/00, 25 April 2000, and follow-ups). In July 2001 he was again brought to trial on charges of "collecting confidential state documents to jeopardize state security" and "spreading propaganda", and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. In 2000 he had written a series of articles, which were later published as a book, in which he implicated several high-ranking officials in the 1998 murders of several prominent writers and political activists, in what became known as the "serial murders" case. Among those implicated in the articles was the former President, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.