Journalist Jailed for Criticizing House Arrests

A Revolutionary Court has sentenced the reformist journalist Soroush Farhadian to seven months in prison for criticizing the house arrests of the Green Movement Leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and for questioning the authorities. The trial was held behind closed doors and the verdict was reported in Iranian media on Friday, September 23.

“My client is a journalist,” said Farhadian’s lawyer Saeed Mir Mohammadi, “and questioning the authorities is a legal and logical thing for him to do.”

Mir Mohammadi said the court had interpreted Farhadian’s criticism of events following the 2009 disputed presidential election as “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” based on Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code. “Anyone who engages in any type of propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, or in support of opposition groups and associations, shall be sentenced to three months to one year of imprisonment,” the article states.

According to the information released by the court, the plaintiff in the case was the Ruhollah Corps, part of the vigilante paramilitary Basij organization. The organization has a long record of harassing non-conformist artists, writers and journalists.

The court did not release the full verdict and Farhadian’s lawyer was only allowed to take notes. “But the full text is thought-provoking both in style and in the words that it uses,” he said.

In the run up to parliamentary elections in Iran in February 2016, Farhadian campaigned for pro-Rouhani candidates, and addressed audiences in a number of  cities around the country. In the second round of the elections, hardliner media regularly targeted Farhadian.

“Both during the questioning and in the court, my client defended the right to freedom of expression,” said Mir Mohammadi. “He repeatedly reminded the court that his actions had been within the law and he would not waive his legal rights including the right of free speech.”

He said his client had not wanted to appeal the decision. “But he did appeal after I and prominent reformists insisted.”

Currently, Farhadian works as editor-in-chief of the reformist magazine Ru-be-Ru (“Face-to-Face”). He has a long record of working for reformist publications including Shargh, Etemad and Bahar.

Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, former Green Movement presidential candidates in the controversial 2009 election, have been held under house arrest for five and a half years. Mousavi’s wife, women’s rights advocate Zahra Rahnavard, is also under house arrest.