Accessibility links

Breaking News

Iran Sentences 'Newsweek' Reporter In Absentia


Maziar Bahari (left) received the Henri Nannen Prize publishing house "Gruner and Jahr" and "Stern" magazine in Hamburg on May 7 for his efforts on behalf of a free press.
Maziar Bahari (left) received the Henri Nannen Prize publishing house "Gruner and Jahr" and "Stern" magazine in Hamburg on May 7 for his efforts on behalf of a free press.
An Iranian court has sentenced an Iranian-Canadian journalist who was in Iran to cover last June's presidential election for "Newsweek" magazine to 74 lashes and 13 1/2 years in jail in his trial in absentia on national security charges, "The New York Times" reports.

Maziar Bahari, who spent more than three months in jail before being released on $300,000 bail and flying to London to be with his wife and newborn daughter, was accused of "conspiring against [Iranian] national security, possession of classified documents, propagating against the government, and insulting both the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei, and [President Mahmud] Ahmadinejad," according to the paper. It adds:

The severity of the sentence, announced a day after five Iranian Kurdish activists were abruptly hanged in a Tehran prison, appeared to be a new signal of repression before the anniversary of the disputed presidential election of June 12, 2009, which galvanized Iran’s opposition movement into the biggest political threat to the theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

About This Blog

"Watchdog" is a blog with a singular mission -- to monitor the latest developments concerning human rights, civil society, and press freedom. We'll pay particular attention to reports concerning countries in RFE/RL's broadcast region.

Subscribe

Latest Posts

Journalists In Trouble

RFE/RL journalists take risks, face threats, and make sacrifices every day in an effort to gather the news. Our "Journalists In Trouble" page recognizes their courage and conviction, and documents the high price that many have paid simply for doing their jobs. More

XS
SM
MD
LG