Pressure mounts on journalists as EU denounces human rights violations

Reporters Without Borders protested today against the sentencing of journalist Hassan Yussefi Eshkevari to seven years in prison and called on the European Union (EU) to step up pressure on the Iranian regime to respect human rights, stop hounding journalists and give news about those it had jailed. "The press freedom situation in Iran gets more disturbing every day," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard, who noted that 10 journalists were currently imprisoned in Iran serving sentences of between three and 11 years. Iran is the Middle East's worst offender for jailing journalists. A meeting of EU foreign ministers expressed their concern on 21 October at Iran's violations of human rights, freedom of expression and the rights of minorities and women. Eshkevari was told on 12 October, after being summoned from prison by the religious court in Teheran, to be told he had been sentenced to seven years imprisonment. This included four years for saying that wearing the Islamic veil and other female dress codes were rooted in Iran's culture and history and were not necessary in Islam, one year for taking part in an international conference in Berlin in 2000 about political and social reform in Iran and two years for "putting out false news." Eshkevari, a theologian and contributor to the monthly Iran-é-Farda, was jailed on 5 August 2000 in Teheran's Evin prison. He was tried in secret by the special religious court in October that year, but the verdict had not been disclosed until now. The editor of the weekly Jamee-é-No, Fatemeh Kamali Ahmad Sarahi, wife of journalist Emadoldin Baghi (who has been in jail since May 2000), was interrogated on 21 October by the press court along with Ezatollah Sahabi, Iran-é-Farda's managing editor. The same day, Reza Alijani, editor of Iran-é-Farda and winner of last year's Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France Prize, was summoned by the Teheran revolutionary court for the first time since his release on bail last 16 December. He had been arrested on 24 February last year. His trial is still going on. In recent weeks, Payam Afzalinejad, of Cinema-Jahan, has been summoned by Adareh Amaken, an organisation close to the intelligence services, and Mansour Bozorgian of Golestan-é-Iran has been interrogated by the press court. Meanwhile, the family of 71-year-old journalist Siamak Pourzand, jailed for "spying and undermining state security" and "having links with monarchists and counter-revolutionaries," has had no news of him for several months. He was seized by security police on 29 November last year and on 3 May this year given an 11-year prison sentence, which was confirmed on appeal in early July. He was initially held in a secret place for four months without access to a lawyer or a doctor. Pourzand was head of Teheran's artistic and cultural centre and also a cultural commentator for several reformist newspapers that have since been shut down. He was also frequently heard on foreign radio stations.