Fears raised for detained journalists
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Group appeals for release of trio in notorious Iran jail
Mar 10, 2007 04:30 AM Olivia Ward STAFF REPORTER
A Canadian journalists' group has asked the government of Iran to immediately release three journalists detained in a protest earlier this week.
Although 30 others were released, the three women, Shadi Sadr, Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh and Jila Baniyaghoub, are still being held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, where Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was murdered in 2003.
They were demonstrating in front of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran to protest legal proceedings against five members of Iranian women's organizations who were arrested in earlier demonstrations.
"Canadian Journalists for Free Expression is very concerned that these three journalists remain in prison without charge," the group said a statement. The group called for their "immediate and unconditional release."
A Human Rights Watch official said the three Iranian women are in solitary confinement and have been on a hunger strike since Tuesday.
The Canadian journalists group said they believe the three were singled out because they drafted a statement that called for the gathering where they were seized.
"Of the 33 arrested, 22 were journalists, which points to the possible targeting of journalists," said the organization.
"With so many prominent female journalists being imprisoned at one time, the government may have hoped to undermine coverage of events such as International Women's Day," which fell on March 8.
Abbasgholizadeh, editor of the Zanan quarterly, has been imprisoned before for contributing to reformist websites, while Sadr is a prominent lawyer, journalist and activist who founded the first website dedicated to the work of Iranian women's rights advocates.
Baniyaghoub is a newspaper editor who also edits the website of the Iranian Women's Society, and was recently acquitted on charges of "acting against national security" and participating in an illegal demonstration for covering a women's protest last June.

"This group of women are always together, and they are very similar in their views," said Morteza Abdolalian, an Iranian-born freelance journalist and founder of Journalists in Exile.
"What is unique about them is that they are very critical of the regime of (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad. They are pro-reform."

Human Rights Watch says that repression, torture and detention have increased in the past four years, as conservative forces tightened their hold on power:
"The combination of torture and ill-treatment in detention, closing off of avenues for legal redress, and silencing public information about these abuses has created an increasingly hostile environment for human rights in Iran."