One of Iran's top human rights advocates, the writer and investigative journalist Emad Baghi, has been temporarily released from jail on bail of about $200,000.
Baghi was jailed in Iran’s post-election crackdown, and the first session of his trial took place on June 22. The charges against him reportedly include propaganda against the Islamic establishment, apparently in connection to his interview with dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, which was broadcast by the Persian Service of the BBC after Montazeri passed away last year.
According to a report posted on
his website, Baghi has spent five months out of his six-month imprisonment in solitary confinement.
His family had said that he suffers from heart and respiratory problems and severe back pain.
The
Kalame website, close to opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi, has posted pictures of Baghi before his imprisonment and after his release on bail.
Baghi, the founder of the Society for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights, is the winner of last year’s prestigious
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. The website of the awards describes Baghi’s work in
this video.
-- Golnaz Esfandiari