Ali-Ayatollhah Hoseini-Khamenei
Spiritual Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Shoshtari, Mohammad Esmail
Minister of Justice

c/o

Iranian Embassy in Canada
245 Metcalfe St.
Ottawa ON K2P 2K2
Fax: (613) 232 5712
Email: iranemb@salamiran.org

24 May 2002

Your Excellencies,

I am writing on behalf of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), a non-profit, non-governmental organization advocating for a free press and freedom of expression around the world. CJFE wishes to express its shock at the sentencing of journalist Siamak Pourzand, aged 71, to 11 years in prison.

According to information published in the daily Iran on 16 May, Judge Jafar Sabri of Court 1610 reported that Pourzand had been sentenced to 11 years in prison, not eight, as the Iranian press had previously reported. Pourzand was convicted on 3 May of having "undermined state security through his links with monarchists and counter-revolutionaries." His court-appointed lawyer filed an appeal. The head of the Iranian prison system, Morteza Bakhtiari, said the journalist was not being held in any of the country’s prisons and that his current whereabouts are unknown.

Pourzand’s family has had no news of him since his sister visited him at the Amaken detention centre, near Tehran, in early March, at which time he seemed very ill. His sister was recently refused permission to visit by the authorities, who said he was too ill.

Pourzand was seized by security police on 29 November 2001. The authorities said nothing about his disappearance and, during his first four months in a secret place of detention, he had no access to a lawyer or medical care. As head of Tehran’s artistic and cultural centre, he was also a cultural commentator for several reformist newspapers that have since been shut down.

CJFE is very concerned about Pourzand’s plight. It is unacceptable that there is a lack of information about such an elderly journalist. On behalf of CJFE, I urge you to provide information on where he is being held and that everything be done to secure his release as soon as possible.

Iran has the dubious distinction of being the largest prison for journalists in the Middle East, with 11 media professionals behind bars. In the past month alone, four jail sentences have been imposed on journalists. These actions can only serve to tarnish even further your country’s reputation in regard to human rights, and respect for freedom of expression in particular.

Sincerely,