Four Azeri minority journalists who were arrested on September 10 while meeting at a political activist’s home in Tehran were released on November 8 after paying bail of 50 million toumen (45,000 euros) but they are still charged with “conspiracy” and “offence against national security.”
They spent nearly two months in solitary confinement in section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison where, according to their relatives, they were interrogated very harshly by intelligence officers trying to get them to confess to activities that would support the charges, delayed reports said.
“This confirms that journalists are subjected to appalling conditions in Evin prison,” Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “Solitary confinement and heavy-handed interrogation, often while blindfolded, are part of the arsenal used by the intelligence ministry, which is in charge of section 209, to intimidate detainees and make them confess to things they did not do.”
They are Alireza Sarafi, editor of Dilmaj (a monthly closed on September 23, 2007), Said Mohamadi, editor of the literary magazine Yashagh, and reporters Hassain Rashedi and Akabar Azad, who write for the magazine Varlighe and the weekly Yarpagh.
Five journalists are currently detained in Iran, which was ranked 166th out of 173 countries in the world press freedom index released by RSF last month.
