A year in prison and five-year political ban for dissident journalist

Leading Iranian journalist and human rights activist Emaddedin Baghi has been sentenced to a year in prison and a five-year ban on political activity at the end of a two-year trial for forming an organisation that defends prisoners’ rights. “We deplore this latest human rights violation by Iran,” Reporters Without Borders said. “With about 29 journalists in prison, Iran continues to be one of the world’s biggest predators of free expression.” Arrested during anti-government demonstrations on 28 December 2009, Baghi was freed on bail last month. He is awaiting a second trial on charges brought by the intelligence ministry after he was interviewed by BBC Persian together with dissident cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died last December. The head of the Association for the Defence of Prisoners’ Rights, Baghi was awarded the French Republic’s Human Rights Prize in 2005 for his campaign to abolish the death penalty in Iran. He has also received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.