Ehsan Mazandarani's Wife: My Husband's Sentence Had Ended

While the Tehran prosecutor announced that the reason for the arrest of Ehsan Mazandarani, the former editor-in-chief of the Farhikhtegan newspaper, was the "full execution" of his previous prison sentence, the family of this imprisoned journalist released documents stating that his prison sentence had ended. According to ISNA news agency, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Tehran, stated on Tuesday, March 14, that the arrest of Ehsan Mazandarani was "in line with the continuation and full execution of his previous conviction." Ehsan Mazandarani was released from prison on February 12, and a picture of his sentence completion was published by his family. However, on Sunday, March 11, agents of the IRGC Intelligence Organization arrested this journalist at his home. Sam Hosseini, the brother of Ehsan Mazandarani's wife, stated in an interview with Radio Farda that the journalist had asked in writing twice about the exact date of his release from Fataneh Fattahi, the head of the execution of sentences at the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office, and Ms. Fattahi had confirmed that Mr. Mazandarani's imprisonment ended on February 12. Meanwhile, Maliheh Hosseini, Ehsan Mazandarani's wife, wrote a letter to the Tehran prosecutor on Tuesday, detailing the correspondence between her husband and the officials involved in his case, stating that the deputy prosecutor of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office had issued a letter of release for Ehsan Mazandarani. Ehsan Mazandarani, in a brief phone call with his family, announced that he had gone on a dry hunger strike since Tuesday in protest against his "illegal, political, and arbitrary" detention. On March 10, four days before Ehsan Mazandarani's arrest, Hengameh Shahidi, a journalist and political activist, was arrested in Mashhad and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran. On social media, including Twitter, a handwritten note from her last writing before her arrest was published. In her writing, Hengameh Shahidi mentioned that she had received "warnings" from "some media and individuals close to the government" regarding the possibility of her arrest. She stated that there was no reason for her arrest unless there was a "project" for the "widespread arrest of political activists and journalists" before the presidential elections. She threatened that if arrested, she would go on a hunger strike from the very first moment in protest against the "illegal practice of restricting journalists and political activists" in Iran.