Pregnant blogger Najmeh Oumidparvar freed after 24 days in prison

Reporters Without Borders is relieved to learn that Najmeh Oumidparvar, who was arrested on 2 March for defending her detained husband, fellow blogger Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, was released after 24 days in detention on 26 March. She said her husband is in good health. Oumidparvar, who is four months pregnant, was freed on payment of bail of an unknown amount. She had defended her husband on her blog (http://www.faryadebeseda.persianblog.com - The Dawn of Freedom). Abdolahi, whose blog's address is http://www.iranreform.persianblog.com, is entering his second month in prison. --------------------------- 2.03.05 Pregnant wife of jailed weblogger imprisoned Reporters Without Borders said it was appalled by the imprisonment of pregnant student, Najmeh Oumidparvar, 26 - wife of weblogger Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi - who has been imprisoned in her turn, one week after her husband. Oumidparvar, who is three month pregnant, has her own weblog (http://www.faryadebeseda.persianblog.com - Dawn of Freedom). She has been accused of defending her husband too openly. On the eve of her arrest she gave an interview to German radio Deutsche Welle. A few days earlier she posted on her own weblog a message her husband had written shortly before his arrest. In it, he claimed the right to express himself freely adding that he was "waiting for the police handcuffs" Plainclothes police searched Oumidparvar‚s home on the morning of 2 March 2005 seizing computers, CDs and every article written by the couple. She was arrested after the search. She was taken back to her home in the afternoon to collect some of her possessions. The authorities told her that she would have to stay in prison for at least ten days. -------------------------------- 28.02.05 Blogger Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi is jailed Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, who was sentenced on appeal on 23 February to six months in prison and a fine of 1 million rials (95 euros), began serving his sentence yesterday in Rafsanjan prison in the south of the country. ______________________________________________________ 24.02.2005 Another blogger gets jail sentence Reporters Without Borders today strongly condemned the Iranian authorities for confirming a six-month prison sentence and one million rials (85 euros) fine on Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, editor of the weblog Webnegar (Web Writer), for supposedly insulting the country's leaders and making anti-government propaganda. He was sentenced on appeal on 23 February and is still free but risks arrest at any moment. The day before, another blogger, Arash Sigarchi, was jailed for 14 years on similar charges. The worldwide press freedom organisation called for "strong international condemnation" of Iran's crackdown on bloggers and urged other bloggers to "spread news about this wave of repression," including the imprisonment of Sigarchi, blogger Mojtaba Saminejad and online journalist Mojtaba Lofti, so as to put pressure on the authorities. Abdolahi, a student campaigner for human rights and democracy and editor of the student paper Noghteh Sare Khat, is thought to have been punished for posting an open letter to the country's Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on his weblog (www.iranreform.persianblog.com). He was also reportedly accused of working for foreign radio stations. The appeal hearing upheld a sentence imposed on 24 January by a court in Kerman (near the southern town of Bam) at the behest of the intelligence ministry, as with Sigarchi.