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UPDATE IRAN: Journalist released from prison
November 05, 2008
The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN welcomes the release of leading journalist and human rights defender Emadeddin Baqi, on expiry of his sentence. Baqi was sentenced to one year in prison in October 2007 for his critical writings and his activities as president of the Society for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights, an organization that he founded in 2003.
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According to International PEN’s information, Emadeddin Baqi was provisionally released from Evin Prison on 15 September 2008 to undergo medical treatment, and days later, on 20 October, he learned that he had been granted a definitive release on expiry of his sentence. While in Tehran’s Evin Prison there were serious concerns for Baqi’s health, as he has a heart disease.
Emadeddin Baqi, was arrested on 14 October 2007 at the Security Unit of the General and Revolutionary Public Prosecutor’s Office after he responded to a summons. Whilst his family was posting bail, Evin prison authorities arrived at the courthouse and announced that Baqi was required to serve a one-year suspended sentence he was given in December 2003, and he was immediately transferred to jail. In November 2003 he had been charged with ‘endangering national security’ and ‘publishing lies’ in a series of articles published in the reformist press and his book The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran, implicating Iranian officials in the 1998 murders of a number of intellectuals and dissidents.
For the previous WiPC Alert on Baqi’s case, see:
Thank you to all who sent appeals on his behalf.