Iranian Journalist, Rights Activist Given Prison Term

Iranian journalist and human rights activist Emadeddin Baghi has been sentenced to one year in jail and banned from political activity for five years, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

The opposition website "Jaras" reports that Baghi was sentenced in Tehran on July 25.

The founder of the Tehran-based Society to Defend Prisoners' Rights, Baghi had been charged with "acting against [Iran's] national security through the spreading of propaganda against the regime" and "disclosing classified documents about [Iran's] prisons."

Other charges against him include "visiting political prisoners' families and providing them with financial and legal help" as well as "having relations with human rights organizations abroad."

Prosecutors had also accused Baghi of "publishing the names of prisoners," who they refer to as "counterrevolutionaries and spies."

Baghi was temporarily released after posting a heavy bail in June following six months in jail. He had spent five of those months in solitary confinement.

Baghi has spent 4 1/2 years in prison in recent years.

He was awarded the Geneva-based Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2009.