Blogger arrested before being able to appeal against jail sentence

Organisation:

RSF_en

Read in Farsi Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi (http://rooznegaar.blogfa.com), who was arrested on 7 February, seven weeks after a Tehran revolutionary court sentenced him to two years in prison for “insulting” the Islamic Republic's leaders and six months in prison for “publicity against the government.” “Mirsayafi's arrest, the latest evidence of the tenacity of the regime's persecution of free expression, violated legal requirements,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He was not able to appeal against his conviction before his arrest because his lawyers did not receive a copy of the court's sentence in time to file the appeal.” Mirsayafi found himself placed under arrest when he responded on 7 February to a summons from the revolutionary court for questioning. His lawyers still have not received a copy of the sentence which the court handed down on 15 December. Arrested for the first time on 22 April, Mirsayafi was released after 41 days in detention on payment of 100 million toman (72,000 euros) in bail. When he appeared in court on 2 November he was charged under article 514 of the criminal code, which says “insulting Supreme Guide Khomeiny, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, or the country's leaders, is punishable by six months to two years in prison,” and under article 500, which says “propaganda against the state is punishable by three months to one year in prison.” Most of what Mirsayafi posted on his blog, Rooznegar, which can no longer be accessed, was about traditional Persian music and culture. He told Reporters Without Borders: “I am a cultural blogger, not a political one. Of all the entries I posted online, only two or three were satirical. I did not intend to insult anyone.” One of Mirsayafi's lawyers told Reporters Without Borders that, “in the opinion of the court's experts, this blog did not have enough visitors to be regarded as a ‘publication'.” Mirsayafi is meanwhile still facing separate charges of “insulting the prophet of Islam” and “attacking the sacredness of Iran” before a Tehran assizes court.

Published on 09.02.2009