Ban on Iranian newspaper lifted

Published January 27th, 2003 - 03:00 GMT

Iran's judiciary lifted a ban on the country's largest-circulating newspaper after a union leader withdrew his complaint against the paper, state-run Tehran television reported Monday.

The daily Hamshahri was ordered closed Wednesday for ten days for failing to publish a response from a union leader to an article criticizing him, the state-run Tehran television reported.

The ban on Hamshahri, or Citizen, was lifted Sunday after the complaint was withdrawn, the television report said.

The ban was imposed after a supplementary to Hamshahri published an article last summer suggesting that Ali Reza Mahjoub, leader of the Labor House, and his union had a secret role in choosing the leaders of the newly-established Islamic Labor Party, a claim that infuriated Mahjoub.

Mahjoub said in a letter published Monday that he withdrew his complaint after editors of Hamshahri got his reply published in the Monday edition of the government-run daily Iran. (Albawaba.com)