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TEHRAN (AFP) - Reformist journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, jailed in April for "hurting Islam", has been placed in solitary confinement, his wife stated to the press Tuesday. "We were informed by other detained friends that Shamsolvaezin has been transferred to an individual prison cell since Sunday, but we do not know why," his wife said. According to the journalists' wife, this new measure was taken following a "new [legal] affair." On Monday, Tehran's press court judge announced that the judiciary is pursuing cases against Bagher Vali-Beig, Hamid-Reza Jalaipour and Shamsolvaezin, who run the Jameeh-e-Ruz company, which published several suspended newspapers. The judge accused the editors of receiving "financial help" from the Iran Freedom Movement, a progressive Islamist group that opposes the government but is largely tolerated. "This firm's funds came from counter-revolutionary groups," said judicial representative Ali-Asghar Tashakori, adding that some of the company's leaders "are also accused of keeping drugs and alcoholic drinks," banned in Islamic Iran. Earlier in August, Iran's supreme court approved a six-month reduction in Shamsolvaezin's three-year jail term. Shamsolvaezin, who is being held at the capital's Evin prison, was originally sentenced in November to three years in prison and a $4,000 fine for "hurting Islam." The former editor-in-chief of the now-banned reformist newspaper Neshat, was prosecuted for publishing articles and letters questioning capital punishment and the "eye for an eye" principle in force in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iran's conservative-dominated judiciary has launched a major campaign against the reformist press, closing more than 20 publications and arresting a number of journalists. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in early August barred the reformist-dominated parliament from debating a motion to repeal further restrictions on the press passed in the waning days of the previous conservative-majority legislature. |
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