Leading Iranian journalist Emadoldin Baghi has been freed on bail after six months in detention, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) . He is to be tried on July 4.
“Baghi’s conditional release after six months in solitary confinement, in appalling conditions and subjected to arbitrary interrogations, is obviously good news,” Paris-based RSF said. “But is Iran is still holding 36 other journalists and bloggers, which is more than any other country in the Middle East.”
As he left prison, Baghi told RSF, “I have felt as if I was on parole ever since the first time I was released in 2003. I am pleased to be out of prison today but my thoughts are with the other journalists and detainees still in jail. Your efforts and the efforts of other human rights organisations are unquestionably of great importance for the fate of detainees.”
A tireless campaigner against the death penalty, Baghi, 46, was arrested on December 28, 2009 for the latest of several spells he has spent in prison since 2000. He had to been hospitalised several times but, despite payment of a large amount of bail, he was not allowed to spend the Iranian New Year with his family on March 21.
