Iran's appeals court has cut the five-and-a-half-year jail term of pro-reform journalist Emadeddin Baghi to three years, Culture Minister Ayatollah Mohajerani told AFP on Monday.
The appeals court has found him innocent of insulting the judiciary, the country's powerful Guardian Council, Iran's state television, as well as a number of officials.
It also reduced to two years his four-year sentence for writing articles that questioned Iran's death penalty and the Islamic "eye-for-an-eye" law, or "qesas."
Baghi was found guilty and jailed in May following complaints filed by the elite Revolutionary Guards corps and by former intelligence chief Ali Fallahian.
Convicted of damaging national security and spreading false information, Baghi disputed the competence of the court throughout his trial.
His Fath newspaper is among more than 20 papers and magazines that have been closed by the conservative courts since a press crackdown launched in the wake of February's parliamentary elections.
Pro-reform backers of President Mohammad Khatami swept to victory in those polls, ousting the longtime conservative majority in parliament -- TEHRAN (AFP)
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