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Society & Culture

Keyvan Samimi, Crime: Journalism

October 13, 2014
IranWire
3 min read
Keyvan Samimi, Crime: Journalism

Keyvan Samimi, although originally arrested for “precautionary” reasons, was jailed in June 2009. He received a life-long ban from journalism in 2010. He was released from prison in May 2015.

 

Name: Keyvan Samimi

Born: 1949

Career: Journalist and human rights activist; editor-in-chief of banned newspaper Nameh; member of the Society in Defense of Press Freedom, member of the Committee to Pursue Arbitrary Arrests and member of the Society to Protect Citizens’ Rights.

Charges: Propaganda against the state, assembly and conspiracy to act against national security, participation in protests and issuing a statement questioning the outcome of the 2009 presidential election.

 

Keyvan Samimi, 65, was arrested on June 13, 2009, the day after the disputed presidential election. When he was arrested, he was told that it was a “precautionary” measure — yet he remains incarcerated up to this day. Samimi spent more than 120 days in solitary confinement.

Despite suffering from a liver disease and severe arthritis in his neck and legs, he has been granted very few medical furloughs, though he was allowed to attend his daughter’s wedding while on bail.

He was tried on February 2, 2010 at Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court and was sentenced to six years in prison and a life-long ban from journalism or taking part in any political activity. He appealed and although the ban was reduced to 15 years, his jail time was upheld.

Having protested against conditions at Evin Prison, he was transferred to to Rajaie Shahr Prison in Karaj, known for harsh conditions, on November 29, 2010.

While there, he went on hunger strike to protest against the death of Hoda Saber, an Iranian journalist and political activist who died in jail on June 10, 2011. His request for a leave of absence to attend his friend’s funeral was denied.

On September 4, 2012, Samimi was put in solitary confinement after news sites published pictures of him and fellow journalist Masoud Bastani celebrating the anniversary of the Green Movement at Rajaei Shahr Prison. While in prison, he also wrote letters to the authorities, including the Supreme Leader and Hassan Rouhani, who was at the time Secretary of Supreme National Security Council, criticizing them for their misdeeds against the citizens of Iran.

In addition to his liver conditions and arthritis, Samimi suffers from heart, stomach and knee problems and, in May 2013, he was transferred to Tehran’s Shari’ati Hospital. But, on May 25,, security agents raided the hospital and brought him back to Rajaei Shahr before his treatment was complete. Following this, his condition deteriorated, and on November 5, he was once again moved a heart specialist center in Tehran.

Reliable sources have said Keyvan Samimi was in a “critical” condition due to his liver problems and worried that if he could die if he remained at Rajaei Shahr prison.

Samimi was released from prison in May 2015.

For more information, visit Journalism is Not a Crime, documenting cases of jailed journalists in Iran.

This is part of IranWire’s series Crime: Journalism, a portfolio on the legal and political persecution of Iranian journalists and bloggers, published in both Persian and English.

Please contact [email protected] with comments, updates or further information about cases. 

 

Read other cases in the series:

Jila Baniyaghoob

Isa Saharkhiz

Ali Ashraf-Fathi 

Mojtaba Pourmohsen

Mahsa Jozeini

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Today's newspapers in Iran

October 13, 2014
IranWire
Today's newspapers in Iran