Two dissident Iranian journalists jailed by Iran’s conservative courts were granted home leave on Sunday after each paying 25,000 dollars for the privilege, one of their colleagues said.
The journalists, Akbar Ganji and Emadeddin Baghi, both well-known advocates of reform, were freed for one week after each paying the 200 millions rials, although the leaves could be extended, Issa Sahar-Khiz told AFP news agency.
Both were granted similar leaves in December 2001 and again in March. Ganji, aged 45, was sentenced to six years behind bars on charges of "undermining state security", and has been in prison for a period of 27 months.
He gained notoriety for his articles in now banned reformist newspapers that implicated several figures close to former president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani for their roles in the 1998 murders of opposition members and intellectuals.
Baghi was sentenced at the same time to seven years in jail for "propaganda against the regime," however his jail time was later reduced to three years. A total amount of 83 Iranian publications, including around 23 dailies, have been suspended in the past two years in a crackdown on the reformist press by the Iranian judiciary, a bastion of conservative clerics. (Albawaba.com)
