UPDATE - IRAN
26 August 2008
Ailing journalist placed in solitary confinement; Kurdish journalist
released on bail, still facing trial
SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris
(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced active concern about the
treatment of journalist and human rights activist Emadoldin Baghi who
earlier this month was placed in an isolation cell in Evin prison, Tehran
instead of being transferred to a hospital.
Baghi was at the start of 2008 released on licence because of a heart
condition but was recalled to jail in April against the advice of doctors.
While free, he wrote to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi
Shahrudi, to complain of the appalling prison conditions in the notorious
Evin jail.
"Emadoldin Baghi is paying the price for his outspokenness," the worldwide
press freedom organisation said. "He has frequently criticised the regime's
officials, some of whom have been appointed to top level positions, such as
intelligence minister Mohseni Ejehi and the prosecutor general Dori
Najafabadi."
"He is being discriminated against when his poor health means he should be
treated in hospital," it added.
Baghi contacted his wife, Fatemeh Kamali Ahmad Sarahi, on 9 August to
inform her that the prison doctor had authorised his transfer to a hospital
in Tehran for further treatment. A few hours later the journalist called
her again to say that he had been admitted to Section 209 of the jail, a
special wing under the control of the intelligence services.
When his wife was allowed to see him on 18 August, he appeared weakened and
complained to her of breathing difficulties as a result of being locked in
an insalubrious cell. Baghi also told her that he had refused to undergo
any further interrogation. "He will no longer put up with being questioned
bound and blindfolded," she told Reporters Without Borders.
In another case, freelance journalist Saman Rasulpur, 23, was released on
14 August on payment of bail of ten million tumen (approx. 7,000 euros),
while awaiting his trial. He was arrested on 27 July at his home in the
city of Mahabad in Kurdistan, for taking part in a demonstration in protest
at death sentences passed against journalists Adnan Hassanpur and
Abdolvahed "Hiva" Botimar as well as a Kurdish teacher. Since his release,
Rasulpur has been summoned on several occasions by intelligence ministry
agents.

Updates the Baghi case: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/93700
Updates the Rasulpur case: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/96102