Akbar Ganji in intensive care

Akbar Ganji in intensive care Reporters Without Borders calls for an independent mediator Paris, 9 Aug (AFP) The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders would like someone to be able to visit Iranian journalist and political prisoner Akbar Ganji, its secretary-general, Robert Ménard, told AFP Tuesday. "We are asking that one of Akbar Ganji's lawyers or a member of his family should be allowed to see him at the hospital (where he has been since 17 July) in order to verify his state of health and find out whether or not he has called off his hunger strike," Ménard said. "There were contradictory statements Tuesday" as to the status of the dissident's hunger strike, Ménard said. "The justice ministry announced that he had stopped the hunger strike but the hospital spokesperson said he was still refusing to eat," he said. "Since it began, the Iranian authorities have announced the end of Akbar Ganji's protest several times," Ménard said. Reporters Without Borders urged Ganji to call off his hunger strike on Monday and is worried about "the gravity of his state of health," Ménard said. "None of his lawyers have seen him since 17 July when he arrived at the hospital, and his family has not seen him since 1 August," he added. Aged 46, Ganji is one of the most emblematic of Iran's political prisoners. He was sentenced in 2001 to six years in prison over an article implicating several senior regime officials in a series of murders of writers and intellectuals. Ganji began his hunger strike on 11 June in an attempt to obtain an unconditional release. The Iranian judicial authorities said he was transferred from prison to the hospital on 17 July to undergo a knee operation. He is being closely guarded and there has been no indication that any operation has in fact been carried out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 08.08.2005 Press freedom group asks Ganji to call off hunger strike Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard appealed to imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji to call off his hunger strike today, as dozens of plain-clothes agents of the Tehran state prosecutor raided his home, insulted and roughed up his wife and daughter, and threatened to arrest them for "spying." The raid on Ganji's Tehran home began at around 9:00 a.m. and lasted an hour. The agents searched the apartment and seized many documents, photo albums, computer diskettes, diaries and personal effects belonging to his daughter. His wife, Massoumeh Shafiie, was handcuffed, hit and threatened with arrest for "transmitting information to foreign media." His daughter was threatened. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Letter to Akbar Ganji Paris, 8 August 2005 Dear friend, I know this message will reach you, even if your hospital bed is under surveillance. I want to talk to you as a friend. We need you, dear Akbar. We need your courage and your combative spirit to continue the fight. I am writing to you to ask you to end your hunger strike. Today, your wife, Massoumeh Shafiie, your lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, and I refuse to let you drift slowly into something from which there is no return. As from today, your body could begin to suffer irreversible harm. We do not want to lose one of the noblest and most powerful voices - the journalist Akbar Ganji. I know that you will agree to listen to your friends and that you will have the courage to accept that they are right. I want to reiterate to you that we are at your side, that we were there yesterday and we want to continue to be there tomorrow. We will not cease to inform public opinion, to put pressure on politicians and to shake often unmoving entities until you are given your freedom, you and the four other journalists in prison in Iran - Hossein Ghazian, Slamak Pourzand, Ejlal Eghvami and Roya Touloui. You have done a great deal to ensure that your contemporaries are aware of the disastrous state of freedoms in Iran. Before, you did it by investigating, writing and exposing the real face of those who hold power in Iran. Now, since 11 June, you have been doing it by not eating, in order to force your tormentors to render you justice. Your hunger strike has clearly shown that "justice" is a word that is unknown to the judges who convicted you. They do not serve fairnessand the law, they are the servile thugs of a despotic regime. Your revolt has echoed around the world. US President George W. Bush, the European Union and France have all publicly called for your release. International human rights organisations are campaigning on your behalf. Ten Nobel laureates including your friend Shirin Ebadi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have together condemned the Iranian government's behaviour and have asked Tehran-based diplomats to go to your bedside. On Saturday, the British ambassador in Iran, Sir Richard Dalton, whose country currently holds the European Union presidency, tried to see you. The Iranian foreign ministry refused, wrapping itself in nationalist pride of poor taste. By drawing all eyes to your hospital bed, you have forced the world to look at Iran's suffering in the face. I hope to hear from you as soon as possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 18.07.2005-Imprisoned journalist rushed to hospital but family denied visiting rights Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the refusal of the Iranian authorities to let the family and lawyer of imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji visit him in the hospital to which he was rushed yesterday. Ganji has been on hunger strike for 37 days and has lost 22 kilos in weight. "Ganji's family and lawyer must immediately be granted the right of visit allowed by Iran's laws, so that they can establish his state of health," the organisation said. "The attitude of the judicial authorities is unacceptable. They are directly responsible for his fate. A journalist cannot be allowed to slowly die and be denied the treatment he needs. That is a serious human rights violation." Ganji was sentenced to six years in prison in 2001 for linking senior regime officials to a series of murders of writers and intellectuals. He has been held in Evin prison, where he began his hunger strike on 10 June. He was rushed yesterday to Milad public hospital north of Tehran. His wife told Reporters without borders she was worried and did not trust the Iranian authorities. Calls for his release have been made by US President George Bush, the European Union and many international human rights organisations. ------------------------------------------------------- 30 May 2005 - Detained journalist let out of prison temporarily to receive medical treatment Reporters Without Borders hailed the decision of the Iranian authorities to let detained journalist Akbar Ganji out of prison today for an undetermined period so that he may receive medical treatment. "We are pleased Akbar Ganji's demands have at last been heeded but we are monitoring developments closely and we will continue to keep up pressure on the Iranian authorities until Ganji has been granted an unconditional and definitive release and until the eight other detained journalists and three detained cyber-dissidents have been freed," the organization said. Ganji told Reporters Without Borders after being let out today that Evin prison officials proposed to him on 28 May that he should be examined by two doctors chosen by his family to confirm his poor state of health and, on that basis, they would grant him permission to leave the prison. When his wife and the doctors went to the prison yesterday, the guards told them their visit was no longer necessary as a decision had already been taken to let Ganji out for a week. But Ganji reacted by refusing the "offer" because he had been demanding a month-long exit permit. Guards finally came to his cell after midnight and told him he was being allowed out immediately, and they did not specify for how long. Ganji will be hospitalized for a week. Pressure from international organizations, and from bloggers and other Internet users who have been constantly relaying developments about Ganji's state of health, almost certainly played a key role in this decision by the Iranian authorities. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 27.05.05 - Call to EU foreign ministers and Javier Solana to put pressure on Iran in Akbar Ganji case Reporters Without Borders has called on the 25 EU foreign ministers and on Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, to do their utmost to press the Iranian authorities to respond to the demands of a hunger-striking prisoner. Journalist Akbar Ganji, imprisoned for five years, is currently on an unlimited fast to claim the right to appropriate medical treatment and his general rights as a prisoner. "The European Union which says it has opened a 'constructive dialogue' with Iran since 1998, has the duty to question the authorities to ensure that a major media figure and human rights activist does not die because of their inactivity," said Reporters Without Borders. Akbar Ganji, detained unfairly for five years and hostage of the Iranian regime is now ill. Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to give immediate guarantees on the journalist's state of health. "In no case should his life be put at risk, neither on the basis of health nor because of ill-treatment, a commonplace occurrence at Evine Prison as several recent cases showed, including that of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi", the organisation added. "We also call on the European Commission to put pressure on the authorities to undertake an inspection of Iranian prisons, where a hunger strike has become the sole resort for journalists trying to obtain their rights as prisoners," it said. Ganji began an "unlimited hunger strike" on 19 May 2005. He called it off on 24 may after negotiations with three prison officials who promised to give way to his demands the following week. But the following day, an assistant of the Tehran prosecutor accused him of lying and warned "the Ganji family not to continue with these lies". The journalist then told his family that he had decided to renew his fast "and this time to the end." His wife, Masoleh Shafii, told Reporters Without Borders: "He is determined to go through to the end. He is sick and weak. As well as the fast, he has stopped taking his medication and his life is really in danger." Ganji, who worked on the daily paper Sobh-e-Emrooz, was arrested on 22 April 2000 after appearing before the press court accused of writing that leading figures, including former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, had been involved in the murder of opponents and intellectuals in late 1998. He was also accused of taking part in a conference in Berlin about reform in Iran which the government charged was "anti-Islamic." He was sentenced on 13 January 2001 to 10 years in prison but the appeal court reduced this to six months on 15 May 2001. However on 15 July 2001, the supreme court quashed the May sentence on technical grounds and imposed a six-year jail sentence. He is being held in solitary confinement and, unlike other political prisoners, is not allowed to phone his wife, and is rarely allowed to leave the prison, although the law permits this. In the course of his five years in prison, he has been allowed only 40 day-passes, most of them for medical appointments. Hospital doctors have recommended that he be hospitalized for back problems and asthma, which has got worse because of his prison conditions, but the judicial authorities continue to block this. His lawyer, Nobel peace laureate Shirin Edabi, has voiced great concern about his state of health. Over 15 years ago, Reporters without Borders created its "Sponsorship Programme" and called upon the international media to select and support an imprisoned journalist. More than two hundreds news staffs around the globe are thus sponsoring colleagues by regularly petitioning authorities for their release and by publicising their situations so that their cases will not be forgotten. Currently, Akbar Ganji is sponsored by Le Devoir, Nice-Matin, La Montagne.