[Mb-civic] FW: RWB: Cyber-journalists forced to give false evidence at colleague's trial

[Golsorkhi]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Shahla Samii <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:45:07 -0500
Subject: RWB:  Cyber-journalists forced to give false evidence at
colleague's trial 

Iran | 15.12.2004

Cyber-journalists forced to give false evidence at colleague's trial

One says he is being held in a 30-square-metre cell with a colour TV

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the pressure being put on
three newly released cyber-journalists and a fourth still in prison to
give false evidence at the trial of the president of the Association of
Iranian Journalists, Ali Mazroi.

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the pressure being put on
three newly released cyber-journalists and a fourth still in prison to
give false evidence at the trial of the president of the Association of
Iranian Journalists, Ali Mazroi. All four said they were treated well
in prison at a press conference held yesterday when charges were
brought against Mazroi in a Tehran court.

  "The Iranian authorities hope to be able to dispel the criticism
abroad by staging pathetic and grotesque performances," the
organisation said. "But these testimonies are utterly pointless as
there is abundant evidence of the mental and physical harassment of
journalists."

  The four journalists brought to court yesterday as prosecution
witnesses in the case against Mazroi were Omid Memarian, Shahram
Rafihzadeh, Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi and Javad Gholam Tamayomi (who is still
in prison). Mazroi is being prosecuted for writing to President
Mohammad Khatami about the mistreatment of his son, Hanif Mazroi,
another cyber-journalist who was recently released from prison.

  At yesterday's press conference, all five said they had not been
mistreated while in detention. Tamayomi even said he was currently
being held in a cell that was "30 square metres in area, with a colour
television."

  In reality, the seven recently detained cyber-journalists were
regularly beaten in prison. Rafihzadeh was beaten on the soles of his
feet with electric wire, a common form of torture in Iranian jails.

  Although six of the seven have been freed on bail, they continue to be
harassed by the authorities. Memarian, Rafihzadeh and Ebrahim spent
eight hours in the offices of Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi the day
before yesterday. They have been summoned for questioning and have
received phone calls from the security services several times since
their release. They have also been told not to accept the services of a
lawyer.

  Letters of "repentance" by these journalists that were dictated by the
authorities were published in the Iranian press on 4 December. Memarian
said in his letter : "I was brain-washed by radical elements" and by
"my relations with counter-revolutionaries."

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press
freedom throughout the world, as well as the right to inform the public
and to be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Without borders has nine
national sections (in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), representatives in
Abidjan, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York,
Tokyo and Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.

  © Reporters Without Borders 2004
  ---
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12090

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