Reformist Newspaper Editor’s Prison Sentence Reduced on Appeal
The seven-year prison sentence of reformist newspaper editor
Ehsan Mazandarani has been reduced to two years on appeal, his brother-in-law Sam Hosseini told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
“We are happy that the Appeals Court reduced the harsh sentence against Ehsan, but we still expect him to be freed because he has done nothing against the law to deserve prison,” said Hosseini.
On July 27, 2016 Mazandarani’s lawyer Hooshang Pourbabaei said that he had heard about the reduced sentence but had not received the court’s verdict in writing.
“I cannot comment on the Appeals Court’s ruling because I have not received the verdict and we don’t know which punishment of his two charges was reduced by the judge,” said Pourbabaei, adding that he expects to receive the official verdict on July 31.
Mazandarani, the editor-in-chief of the reformist Farhikhtegan newspaper, was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Organization as part of an escalating crackdown on reformist and independent journalists on November 2, 2015. He was charged with “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the state” and sentenced to seven years in prison by Judge Mohammad Moghisseh of Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court on April 26, 2016.
Mazandarani was granted furlough (temporary leave) for three days on July 5, 2016 after a 50-day hunger strike in Tehran’s Evin Prison to protest prison conditions and the authorities’ refusal to free him on bail until the Appeals Court’s ruling.
