By Curt on Dec 8, 2007 in Omid Sheikhan, Shurideh, Najmeh Oumidparvar, Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, Kianoush Sanjari, Aryo, Iran, Arash Sigarchi, Mojtaba Saminejad, Ahmad Seraji, Imprisoned bloggers
Hamid Tehrani was good enough to provide us with a status report on a number of Iranian bloggers who had been sentenced to time in prison.
Mojtaba Saminejad. Mojtaba was one of the people featured on CPB’s Free Mojtaba and Arash Day, the fifth leading meme in the blogosphere in 2005. He was arrested in June of 2004, after detailing the arrest of other Iranian bloggers on his blog. He had originally been freed on bail but the authorities doubled the bail and he was forced to return to prison. In June of 2005, he was sentenced to almost three years in prison. At one point he was allowed out, in handcuffs, to take his university examinations. He was released in September of 2006. He blogs again, at Ghomaar, on political and social issues and works for an Iranian publishing house.
Arash Sigarchi. Arash was the other focus of the CPB’s Free Mojtaba and Arash Day. Arash was sentenced to 14 years in prison for…well, who knows? It’s Iran. His blog, meeting with foreign reporters, any number of other real and fictional offenses. His sentenced was subsequently reduced to three years. Arash was released from prison after being diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. Mercifully, he has recovered his health. However, with a renewed health is a renewed possibility of being imprisoned again. However, while in jail, Arash lost his brother.
Ahmad Seraji (Aryo). This blogger slipped over the border to Turkey. According to a Persian human rights blog, he was beaten by Turkish police, who tried to have him deported. He subsequently escaped from Turkey with his wife.
Kianoosh Sanjari. This blogger also fled charges but escaped to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Among others we are researching are Omid Sheikhan (Shurideh), Najmeh Oumidparvar & Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi. If you know anything on the status of these bloggers, or of any others that are in, or have been released from, prison, please let us know.
Update: We received an email from Kianoosh.
I was kept in solitary confinement, by the Intelligence ministry for 2 months in the 209 section of Evin prison, and had experienced enormous physical and psychological pressure.
I was discharged from prison on bail and escaped Iran.
I spent sometime in the Iraqi Kurdistan and then managed to get asylum in Norway through Amnesty International.
According to statistics released by Reporters without boarders, 2 journalists and 2 bloggers are in Iranian prisons, including Jelwe Javaheri and Maryam Hossenkhah.
A number of students who have been arrested during the past week have also been bloggers.
Update: We received information regarding Omid Sheikhan, aka Shurideh. He was given 124 lashes, which he survived, and, after four months, representatives of Shirin Ebadi’s Nobel-prize winning human rights law firm in Tehran were able to get him released. He is out and doing well.
Update: Persian Impediment
