Banned Books Week
IRAN
Emadeddin Baghi
Journalist harassed and imprisoned
NEW! Petition (PDF)
Author of more than 25 books (six of which have been banned), journalist and human rights defender Emadeddin Baghi is now serving a one-year prison sentence first imposed in November 2003, when he was found guilty of “printing lies” and “endangering national security” after the publication of his book, The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran. He appears to have been been imprisoned because of his work with two organizations he founded that are critical of the human rights situation in Iran. His family and lawyers report that since 2003 the authorities have summoned him to court 23 times. Amnesty International considers Emadeddin Baghi to be a prisoner of conscience. When he was named “International Journalist of the Year” at the British Press Awards in April 2008, he asked AI to attend for him and read his short statement of acceptance.
Emadeddin Baghi first went to prison in 2000, when he was given a three-year sentence for “attacking national security” for his writings about the killing of dissident intellectuals in Iran in the late 1990s. After his release in February 2003, he founded the Society To Defend Prisoners’ Rights. He also edited a newspaper, Joumhouriat, until July 2004, when it was closed down by the authorities.
He was detained at Tehran’s airport on 4 October 2004 as he attempted to travel to New York to receive the Civil Courage Prize, an award for his work to defend human rights. His passport was confiscated and he has not been allowed to leave the country since then.
On 14 October 2007, he was arrested when he responded to a summons to appear before Branch 14 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. He was questioned about his activities as head of the Society to Defend Prisoners’ Rights. He was accused of “publishing secret government documents”. While his family was in the process of delivering bail money, they were told that, instead of being released on bail, he must immediately serve the suspended one-year prison sentence imposed after an unfair trial in 2003, during which he had no access to a lawyer.
Emadeddin Baghi also was sentenced to another prison term, of three years, on 31 July 2007. He appealed against the sentence, and on 29 April 2008 the Appeal Court acquitted him of charges of “activities against national security” and “publicity in favour of the regime’s opponents” — charges apparently related to his media interviews and letters to the authorities, criticizing death sentences imposed on several Iranian Arabs after unfair trials.
Also on 31 July 2007, Emadeddin Baghi’s wife and daughter were given three-year suspended prison sentences and five years of probation for taking part in a series of human rights workshops in Dubai in 2004. The charges were “meeting and colluding with the aim of disrupting national security”. During a medical leave, Emadeddin Baghi, his wife and his daughter all were summoned five times to appear before a Revolutionary Court in Tehran.
On 26 December 2007, while in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison, he suffered a seizure. He was taken to hospital, where he had a second seizure, but was returned to prison the following day. In mid-January 2008, he was granted leave on bail for hospital treatment until mid-April, after which he suffered another seizure and a heart attack in his cell. He returned to Evin Prison on 30 June 2008 after another leave to receive medical treatment.
Please call for the immediate release of Emadeddin Baghi, held solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression and his peaceful activism on behalf of human rights. Refer to guarantees in the Constitution of Iran and to Iran’s obligations under Articles 19 & 21 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights not to use vaguely worded laws related to “national security” to curtail freedom of expression.
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice Building
Panzdah-Khordad Square
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency
Iranian Interests Section
Embassy of Pakistan
2209 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20007
Salutation: Dear Sir or Madam
Airmail postage abroad: 94¢
