Iranian journalist tried on fabricated charges

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 27 February 2018

BRUSSELS - Journalist Reyhaneh Tabatabaei appeared before the Iranian revolutionary court on Monday on charges of “propaganda against the regime”.

The International Journalists Federation (IFJ) and its affiliate the Association of Iranian Journalists (AoIJ) have called for all “fabricated” charges against the journalist to be dropped.

Reyhaneh Tabatabaei is a journalist and a political activist. She works for the Iranian reformist news website Emtedad and used to work for several reformist newspapers including Shargh, Farhikhtegan, and Bahar.

Tabatabaei was tried in court three times in the past eight years. In 2010 she was arrested on charges of “propaganda against the regime” and spent 36 days in confinement.

She was sentenced to a one-year jail term and served a six-month sentence in the Evin prison.

In 2014 she was arrested for “ trying to deny the supervisory role of the Guardian Council over elections”. She spent one month in confinement and was sentenced to one year in jail.

The journalist has already spent a total of one-and-a-half-year behind bars.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “We are greatly concerned by the fabricated charges that Reyhaneh is charged with. This journalist has been doing her job with due respect to journalistic standards and we see no reason why she should serve any other term in jail for exercising her freedom of speech. We ask the Iranian authorities to drop all charges against her”.

The IFJ has relentlessly raised its concerns over the persecution of journalists in Iran. – IFJ media release