Iranian authorities have granted a three-day furlough to three reformist political prisoners, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Ghorbanali Behzadannejad and Javad Emam.
Mostafa Tajzadeh, a senior member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, was arrested during the protests that disputed the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in the 2009 presidential election. Tajzadeh was sentenced to six years in prison.
Ghorbanali Behzadiannejad, an aid to reformist presidential candidate MirHosein Mousavi, was sentenced to five years in prison. Javad Emam, another Mousavi aide, was sentenced to one year.
While scores of Iranian political prisoners arrested in the post-election mass protests were released in the past week, many still remain incarcerated in the overcrowded prisons of the Islamic Republic.
During that same week, the We-change women’s rights website reports that two women’s rights activists were sentenced in Esfahan. The report indicates that Mehrnoosh Etemadi and Hayedeh Tabesh, members of the One Million Signatures Campaign to End Discrimination, were given nine months in prison for “propaganda against the regime.” Their punishment has been suspended for three years.
Another human rights and student activist, Saeed Jalaifar, has been sentenced to three years in prison, according to the Human Rights Reporters Committee. He is accused of propaganda activities against the regime and giving interviews to foreign media outlets.
