Release the 11 journos - RSF
2004-01-10 12:05
Tehran - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has demanded Iranian authorities immediately release 11 journalists, arguing that most of them are in appalling health.
"It is completely unacceptable for journalists like Siamak Pourzand, who is sick and 74-years-old, to be still held in solitary confinement," RSF's secretary general, Robert Menard, said in a statement.
"The same goes for Ali-Reza Jabari, 60, who suffers from heart problems and has even received 253 lashes.
The journalists' families are not even allowed to bring warm clothing to the sick prisoners."
The statement said Pourzand, a freelance journalist who was jailed in 2000 for eight years, had even been tortured and was being held in a basement cell in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.
The Paris-based group said another jailed reporter, Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari, was suffering from acute diabetes and was being denied intensive care treatment.
Journalist and dissident Akbar Ganji was being prevented from having an urgent operation for an acute throat disorder.
In recent years the hardline-run Iranian judiciary has jailed several prominent pro-reform journalists in a massive crackdown on the dissident press.