Iranian of the Day

Kaleme: Eighty days after Mahsa Amrabadi began her prison term at Evin Prison, she and her husband Massoud Bastani, also imprisoned, were allowed to have a visit together.

According to Kaleme reports, intelligence and judicial authorities repeatedly rejected the couple's requests for visitation. After threats and refusals, finally upon orders from the Prosecutor's Office, Massoud Bastani was transferred from Rajaee Shahr Prison to Evin Prison, so that the journalist couple could have a one-hour visit.

Arrested in June 2009, Journalist Massoud Bastani is serving a six year sentence at Rajaee Shahr Prison for “propagating against the regime and congregating and collusion to create anarchy.” He has has now served three years in prison without a day of furlough. Bastani's interrogators have said that they would agree to his release on furlough if he agrees to coordinate his movements during his furlough with them. Bastani has rejected the request as "illegal," emphasizing that he considers prison furlough his right, and he will only use it within legal frameworks stipulated by the law.

Journalist Mahsa Amrabadi has been serving her prison term at Evin Prison since May 9. Amrabadi was arrested in June 2009 and was released two months later on bail of $200,000. Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her to five years in prison, 4 years of which were suspended and one year to be served, on charges of "propagating against the regime through interviews and reports." An appeals court later upheld Amrabadi's sentence in its entirety.

* Massoud Bastani's Prisoner of the day page

* Mahsa Amrabadi's Prisoner of the day page