Watchdog

A prominent Iranian journalist has been ordered to report to Tehran's Evin prison to serve a sentence handed down to him last year by Tehran's Revolutionary Court, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

In December, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin was sentenced to 16 months in prison on charges including "spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic regime" and insulting President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

Shamsolvaezin, the spokesman for the Committee to Defend Press Freedom, told RFE/RL on July 19 he had been given three days to appear at the prosecutor's office at Evin prison.

This is the fifth time Shamsolvaezin, who is also the deputy head of the Iranian Journalists Association, has been sentenced for his professional activities.

He was detained in December 2009 during the post-presidential-election crackdown and released on bail in February 2010.

Shamsolvaezin was the editor in chief of the reformist newspapers "Jame'eh," "Tous," "Neshat," and "Asr-e Azadegan," all of which were closed down by Tehran's Press Court between 1998 and 2000.

Shamsolvaezin's lawyer, Mohammad Seifzadeh, is currently also in prison serving a nine-year sentence on charges of "acting against national security" for co-founding the Center for Human Rights Defenders together with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and two other lawyers.

BAKU -- Azerbaijani police have moved to quash a demonstration in Baku supporting an anticorruption campaign launched earlier this year by President Ilham Aliyev, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports.

Prior to the protest, employees from the Baku-based Institute for Peace and Democracy and local residents attached balloons to trees in front of the institute and put placards on the walls reading: "Yes to the law, no to corruption!"

But police came and burst the balloons and tore down the signs.

Leyla Yunus, the rights activist who heads the institute, told RFE/RL the group supports Aliyev's antigraft campaign.

"But the police are trying to prevent our activity. They are violating the law by not allowing us to display [our] slogans," she said.

Mukhtar Mukhtarov, head of the public security department at Baku's Nasimi district police office, said Yunus was violating public order by staging an unapproved gathering.

"She is drawing attention by hanging balloons here," he said. "Public order is being violated. Let them protect their legal rights by lawful means. Let them appeal to the court, the relevant district executive office."

Institute for Peace and Democracy staff flew more balloons after the police left. Dozens of local residents participated.

Institute staffers also handed out a list of recommendations on fighting corruption. Azerbaijanis whose property rights have been violated were advised to film corrupted officials' when they make illegal demands, post the video on the Internet, inscribe anticorruption slogans on their homes, and hang placards on their balconies.

Many local observers say the government's antigraft campaign has yielded few results. Dozens of low-level officials have been dismissed or jailed, but many of them were later released or reinstated to their former positions.

Read more in Azeri here