Reporters Without Borders Calls for Immediate UN Action on Imprisoned Journalists in Iran

Reporters Without Borders has sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for immediate action regarding the conditions of political prisoners in Iran, particularly journalists and citizen journalists. The letter, published on Friday, December 30, condemns the Islamic Republic for 'arbitrary detentions' of political prisoners and 'depriving them of the right to medical treatment and fair trial,' labeling it a 'flagrant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.' The letter provides statistics on detained journalists and citizen journalists in Iran, stating that at least 40 arrests of these activists have occurred since the beginning of 2018. Reporters Without Borders adds that some of these journalists and citizen journalists have been 'temporarily released on heavy bail until the court's verdict,' but 13 of them face 'prison sentences ranging from 3 to 26 years'; currently, '28 journalists and citizen journalists are imprisoned in Iranian jails.' The international organization then lists the cases of arrests, mentioning members of the Majzooban Noor website, a news outlet for Gonabadi dervishes, stating that Reza Entesari, Khosrow Noori, Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam, Sina Entesari, and Amir Noori spent over 100 days in the 'horrific solitary confinement of Fashafouyeh prison' and were returned to the general ward on December 22, 1397, while 'throughout this time, by order of the Ministry of Intelligence and prison officials, their families had no news of their whereabouts or the reasons for their detention.' In November of this year, the news organization Human Rights Activists in Iran, HRANA, reported that 201 Gonabadi dervishes have been sentenced to a total of 1,080 years and two months in prison, 5,995 lashes, 46 years of travel bans, 114 years of exile, and 72 years of deprivation from social activities. The peak of the Iranian government's confrontation with Gonabadi dervishes was in Bahman of last year when security forces sought to arrest or place Noor Ali Tabandeh, the leader of the Gonabadi dervishes, under house arrest. About 500 dervishes were arrested during this confrontation, and Mr. Tabandeh has been under house arrest since then. Reporters Without Borders wrote in its letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that Saleh al-Din Moradi, Reza Entesari, a manager of the Majzooban Noor website, and Sina Entesari, a citizen journalist, each received a 7-year prison sentence, while Khosrow Noori, another manager of this website, and Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam, a citizen journalist, each received 12 years in prison, and Mostafa Abdi was sentenced to 26 years in prison. The letter also refers to the 12 years and 9 months prison sentence for Hengameh Shahidi, a journalist, considering her a 'victim of arbitrary detention and unfair trial.' Saeed Malekpour, a jailed blogger who has spent 10 years in prison without leave, is another figure whose conditions Reporters Without Borders has called attention to, accusing the Islamic Republic of torturing him. Other names mentioned in the Reporters Without Borders text include Narges Mohammadi, Vice President of the Iranian Human Rights Defenders Association, Soheil Arabi, a photographer and blogger, and Mohammad Hossein Heydari, the editor of the Dowlat-e Bahar website, who are also imprisoned. This international organization had also published a report the day before on violence against journalists in 2018, stating that 'the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the five largest prisons for journalists in the world.'