Alireza Rajai, Iranian Journalist, Released from Prison

Alireza Rajai, a jailed journalist and national-religious activist, was released from Evin Prison on Tuesday, October 25, after serving his sentence. A judicial official confirmed his release to the ISNA news agency. Rajai had been arrested twice during the protests following the 2009 presidential election and the detention of political activists; once in 2009 and again in 2011 by security forces. After his second arrest, the 26th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced him to four years in prison and five years of deprivation of all social rights and the right to participate in political parties and civil institutions for membership in the National-Religious Forces Coalition and actions against national security. Alireza Rajai, who holds a PhD in political science, has managed the political service of reformist newspapers such as Jameh, Toseh, Khordad, Neshat, and Asr Azadegan. He was also arrested in March 2001 along with other national-religious activists. In the sixth parliamentary elections, he was able to secure enough votes as a candidate of the National-Religious Forces Coalition in Tehran to enter the parliament, but after the Guardian Council annulled nearly 700,000 votes from Tehran's electoral district, he was prevented from entering the parliament, and Gholamali Haddad Adel took his place. Rajai's family, in a letter to the Iranian judiciary in June 2011 after his sentence was announced, called for 'converting his detention order to a more appropriate one' and 'issuing an acquittal ruling' for him. In mid-May 2011, more than 200 political and civil activists, artists, and well-known academic and social figures issued a statement calling for Alireza Rajai's release.