Ahmad Zeidabadi, a jailed Iranian journalist and the head of the Tajkim-e Vahdat alumni organization, has been given furlough from Evin Prison.
The Neday-e Sabz Azadi website reports that Zeidabadi was arrested in June of 2009, just hours after the controversial election results were announced, and was held in solitary for 141 days.
He has been sentenced to six years in jail, exile to Gonabad and a lifelong ban from social and political activity.
Zeidabadi won the 2010 Golden Pen award from the Global Press Institute and the 2011 Press Freedom Award.
Iranian political prisoners are usually given temporary leaves to spend Norooz with their families, but this year, controversy over the EU foreign policy chief’s meeting with Iranian women’s rights activists in Tehran reportedly raised the anger of Iranian hardliners and led to delays in furloughs for prisoners.
