Human Rights Campaign: 'Naranja' Members Transferred to Prison

An informed source regarding the 'Naranja' website told the International Human Rights Campaign in Iran that four members of 'Naranja' were transferred to Kerman prison by security agents from their homes to serve their sentences. According to this human rights organization, the source added that while these four individuals were transferred to prison to serve their sentences, the appellate court's ruling has not yet been communicated to them or their lawyers. All four were convicted of propaganda against the regime and actions against national security through their activities on the Naranja website. According to the informed source, Ali Asghar Honarmand, the head of Pat Shargh Gavaashir Company, owner and editor-in-chief of the Naranja website, was sentenced to 11 years in prison; Hossein Nowzari, CEO of Pat Shargh Gavaashir Company, to 7 years; Ehsan Pak Nejad, a programmer at the company, to 5 years; and Abbas Vahedi, a writer for the Naranja website and content producer, to two and a half years in prison in the primary court. All of them were transferred to Kerman prison on Wednesday morning, February 28, without being notified of the appellate court's ruling. Naranja was one of the popular websites in Iran regarding news related to technology and gadgets. It was launched by a small group of technology bloggers from a small office in Kerman and quickly became one of the sites of interest for technology enthusiasts in Iran. However, the front page of Naranja reported on Tuesday, December 3, 2013, the arrest of Ali Asghar Honarmand, Abbas Vahedi, Alireza Vaziri, Nasim Nikmehr, Maliheh Nakhaei, Mohammad Hossein Mousizadeh, and Sara Sajjadpour, technical members and writers, by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Previously, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which supports civil liberties in the digital world and the internet, had called for the release of the officials and writers of the Naranja website in a report published on its website. Meanwhile, the crackdown on cyber activists in Iran continues, as Reporters Without Borders condemned the repression of web journalists and social media activists earlier this year. In this regard, protests against the continued imprisonment of 'Naranja' members by the IRGC have been reported, with Reporters Without Borders stating that the judiciary is a tool of the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence.