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November 5, 1999
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi
Head of the Judiciary
c/o Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
622 3rd Ave, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its profound
concern about the arrest on Tuesday of Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, editor-in-chief
of the daily Asr-e-Azadegan.
Shamsolvaezin was taken into custody on November 2 after a Tehran court
ordered his arrest, reportedly because he failed to appear in court to face
charges of insulting Islam. The charges stem from articles published in the
now-defunct daily Neshat, which Shamsolvaezin edited until judicial
authorities closed the paper on September 5, 1999.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported yesterday that
Shamsolvaezin had been additionally charged with "forgery." CPJ has been unable
to determine the exact nature of the charge. IRNA also reported that
Shamsolvaezin is being held in Tehran's Evin Prison.
Mashallah Shamsolvaezin's arrest is only the most recent in a long series of
Iranian judicial attempts to silence independent media. Over the past year, dozens
of journalists have been arrested or prosecuted by Iranian courts because of their
published work. Such measures violate basic press freedom norms and serve only to
stifle the free debate that is essential in a democratic society. We remind Your
Excellency that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants
journalists the right to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers."
We hope that Your Excellency will exert your influence to ensure that Mashallah
Shamsolvaezin is released immediately and that the charges against him are dropped.
We further urge you to take all necessary measures to guarantee that all journalists
in Iran are allowed to practice their profession freely, without reprisal from judicial
authorities.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We look forward to your timely
response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Join CPJ in
Protesting Attacks on the Press in Iran
Send a letter to:
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi
Head of the Judiciary
c/o Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
622 3rd Ave, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017
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