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Ayatollah
interview costs Iranian journalist six years jail term
Thursday, September 23, 2010 08:25:13 AM,
IANS
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Tehran:
The Iranian judiciary sentenced journalist and human rights
activist Emadeddin Baqi to a six-year jail term for conducting an
interview with an ayatollah, opposition websites reported
Wednesday.
According to the websites, Baqi was convicted Tuesday by a
revolutionary court in Tehran on charges of spreading propaganda
against the establishment and a national security breach.
The websites said the main charge against Baqi stemmed from a
video interview with the late dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali
Montazeri, which was broadcast in December on the Farsi programme
of the BBC.
Montazeri, who died in December at the age of 87 after a long
illness, was a fierce critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and
had accused his government of dictatorship.
The BBC Farsi programme, which can be watched in Iran through
satellite, is accused by the Iranian establishment of being
mouthpiece and propaganda tool of global imperialism with a
hostile stance towards the Islamic state.
Due to his critical articles as a journalist as well as his
activities advocating for political prisoners, women's rights and
against torture, the 48-year-old Baqi has either been in jail or
in court for much of last 10 years.
Baqi, who has reportedly been detained 67 times since 2000 and
spent almost half of the last decade in jail, suffers from serious
heart and kidney ailments. He is currently free on bail.
Baqi was awarded last year in Madrid with the Martin Ennals Award
for Human Rights Defenders for his campaigns in Iran.
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