Wives of jailed journalists demand visiting, telephone
rights
TEHRAN, Oct 5 (AFP) - Wives of imprisoned Iranian journalists called
on MPs Wednesday to intervene on behalf of their husbands, who they say
have been deprived of visiting and telephone rights, the official IRNA
news agency reported.
Speaking on behalf of the women, Fariba Abbassgholi-Zadeh said that
her husband, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, as well as Emmadeddin Baghi, Akbar
Ganji, Latif Safari, Hassan Yussefi Ashkevari and Ahmad Zidabadi, have
been prohibited from receiving visits or making telephone calls for the
past two weeks.
Shamsolvaezin, who was director of the Neshat daily newspaper, was jailed
for having authorized an article condemning the death penalty and for links
with a publishing house that backed reformist newspapers.
His wife said the judge told him that if he wanted his conditions to
improve he "must repent of what he had done, not bring out the newspaper
again and retract his accusations" against Iranian justice.
But she said her husband, who considers that he has done nothing wrong,
refused.
The conservative-dominated judiciary has shut down 15 reformist newspapers
and some 10 magazines since reformists won a parliamentary majority in
elections earlier this year.
Fiften journalists and intellectuals, religious and laypeople, all allies
of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, are in prison. Several others
are free, awaiting trial.
Links
