Iran released Keyvan Mehregan, the political editor of Shargh newspaper and Reza Khandan, husband of jailed human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh yesterday evening.
The release of Keyvan Mehregan, the last of the Shargh newspaper crew who was still in prison after the arrest of six editors and reporters linked to the reformist newspaper in December, was reported on Mizan Khabar. Mehregan’s bail was set at $10,000 and the prosecutor of Tehran had said earlier the Shargh newspaper detainees were facing security charges.
Feminist School website reported the release of Reza Khandan. Accoridng to the report, Khandan had been summoned to the Evin Prison court on Sunday to face charges of “disturbing public perception and publishing falsehoods.”
The judge set up a $50,000 bail for him but once his sister-in-law, Guiti Sotoudeh offered to put up the bail, the judge refused her as the bail guarantor. On Monday, after finding another guarantor, Khandan was finally released from custody.
Khandan’s wife, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is a prominent Iranian lawyer with a practice mainly focused on human rights cases, has been incarcerated since last September charged with threatening national security and propagation against the regime. She is also facing the charge of "not wearing hijab (Mislim covering) in a recorded video message.
She was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison and 20 years ban from law practice and travel abroad.
Khandan, who has been very vocal in informing the media about the situation of his wife, was arrested after Sotoudeh was handed her sentence.
Sotoudeh has gone on hunger strike twice in prison to protest against the delays in her case and the irregularities in the legal proceedings against her.
According to Iran Green Voice, Fariborz Rais Dana, was also released on Monday on a $30,000 bail.
Rais Dana, a prominent Iranain economist who has criticized the government’s plan to cut public subsidies on energy and food staples, was arrested in December at the threshold of implementation of this project.
