Watchdog

A coalition of media freedom organizations has delivered a petition to Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York demanding the immediate release of dozens of journalists, writers, and bloggers currently imprisoned in the country.

The New York-based Committee To Protect Journalists, one of the sponsors of the campaign, says in a press release that more than 3,500 people signed the petition, including many well-known writers, journalists, and rights advocates.

The petition campaign is titled “Our Society Will Be A Free Society,” in reference to a quote by Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini, who said in 1978 on the eve of the revolution: “Our future society will be a free society, and all the elements of oppression, cruelty, and force will be destroyed.”

“We hope those in jail will be heartened by this level of international attention,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “By collecting these names from all corners of the world, we want to convey to our imprisoned colleagues the depth of our concern and to Iranian authorities the depth of our outrage.”

According to CPJ, at least 34 journalists were jailed in Iran as of April 1, and another 18 were free on short-term furloughs but were expected to report back to prison soon.

Meanwhile today, Iranian journalist and human rights activist Abolfazl Abedini has reportedly been given an 11-year prison sentence.

The mother of Iranian journalist and human rights activist Abolfazl Abedini says he has been sentenced to 11 years in jail, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

Abedini, a member of the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Activists in Iran, was arrested on March 3 in the southwestern city of Ahvaz after his home was raided.

His family said he was beaten by members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as he was taken away.

Abedini's mother, Asareh Eyvazi, told Radio Farda that her son's lawyer, Mohammad Olyaeefard, informed her about the sentence. Abedini had been found guilty of "spreading propaganda against the regime through interviews with foreign media."

Eyvazi said she recently wrote an open letter to judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani demanding justice for her son. She says she has received no reply.

"What crime has my son committed that he deserves to be tortured?" Eyvazi wrote in her letter to Larijani. "Is it a crime to defend the rights of workers at the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Factory, Tehran bus company workers, or the Iranian Teachers Syndicate?"

Abedini, 28, has been detained by security forces several times over the past five years.