Iranian journalist Sam Mahmoodi Sarabi continues to be held in legal limbo at Evin Prison, even as his arrest warrant is renewed after two months.
“While they had told us that they would process his file this month, he remains in an undetermined state in Ward 350 of Evin Prison,” his family told the Jaras website. “The security forces also prevent his lawyers from visiting him or even contacting the investigator in his case.”
According to his mother, Alieh Jangi, Mahmoodi was arrested for writing poetry and an open letter to opposition leader MirHosein Mousavi, which the investigator has deemed to be “propaganda against the regime, activity against national security and insulting the leadership.”
Mahmoodi, a staff member of Shargh newspaper, was arrested last March.
The Kaleme website also reports the arrest of Farid Salavati, a journalist in the city of Esfahan, on Sunday June 12.
RAHANA Human Rights House of Iran indicates that the one-year sentence handed to Mahsa Amrabadi, another journalist accused of “activities against the regime through interviews and journalistic reports,” has been confirmed by the appellate court. Amrabadi was arrested two days after the June 2009 presidential elections and released two month later on bail of $200,000.
In the past two years, scores of journalist have been arrested and many handed prison sentences in the crackdown on popular protests that challenged the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
