Isa Saharkhiz Released — Then Sentenced Again

Prominent journalist Isa Saharkhiz was released from prison on April 25, IranWire has learned via media freedom group Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF). The news was also announced by Saharkhiz’s son Mehdi, who tweeted about his father’s release. 

But on April 26, news emerged that authorities had sentenced Saharkhiz on a new charge, and that he would have to serve a new one-year sentence.

Authorities informed Saharkhiz that he was being punished for insulting former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the head of Iran’s judiciary. 

His lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabatei, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) that he has appealed the verdict to Tehran’s appellate court.

Mehdi Saharkhiz also announced his father would be tried again on May 10 on the charge of spreading lies, a trial that relates to Saharkhiz’s previous conviction. In summer 2016, Tabatabatei said that there were three separate cases against his client. 

The news about the prominent journalist — who has faced jail terms on several occasions — emerged as Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) released its World Press Freedom Index. Iran ranks 165 out of 180 in this year’s Index. As one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists, Iran sits at the bottom of the rankings, between Yemen and Bahrain.

In Iran, officials arbitrarily detain media workers, often citing obscenity offences or threats to national security. Among the journalists arrested in Iran in 2016 were Soroush Farhadian, Hormoz Sharifian, Sadra Mohaghegh, and Heshmatollah Tabarzadi. 

Hengameh Shahidi, who was arrested in March 2017, is on hunger strike and in critical condition. The RSF report also points to the poor conditions in Iranian prisons, and that hunger strikes are quite common among inmates. 

Although the Islamic Republic of Iran has actually gone up four places in this year’s index, Rebecca Vincent, RSF’s UK Bureau head, emphasized that media freedom had declined in almost all countries. Because the situation is considered “very grave” in more countries than ever, this does not mean the situation has improved significantly in Iran. The fact that some countries, including Nicaragua and Tanzania, have fallen several places — as well as the documented fall in media freedom in democracies — naturally has a knock-on effect on how Iran ranks. 

Revolutionary Guards arrested Saharkhiz on November 2, 2015, accusing him of being part of an “infiltration network.”  Guards arrested fellow journalists Ehsan Mazandarani, Afarin Chitsaz, and Saman Safarzaei and the brother of a journalist, Davoud Asadi, a day later on similar charges. In April 2016, all three were given long prison sentences, but Saharkhiz was tried separately. Following an extended hunger strike and long periods in solitary confinement, Ehsan Mazandarani suffered a heart attack in June 2016.

Responding to continuous pressure from the international community, President Hassan Rouhani’s government has denied it jails journalists for their work. In an interview with US TV host Charlie Rose in 2015, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif insisted Iran did not jail people for their opinions.

In the run-up to the presidential election on May 19, the Revolutionary Guards have stepped up their persecution of journalists. Although there are clear rifts between Iran's judiciary and Rouhani's executive branch, the Rouhani government has done little to turn its gestures of supporting free speech into a reality since it came into power in 2013.