Friday, February 25, 2005

Statement of the Association of Iranian Blogwriters regarding imprisonment of Iranian Blogwriter, Arash Sigarchi

Dear fellow blogwriters

While underprivileged people of this country are experiencing disasters repeatedly, either burn in flames or the their roof collapses on them, a young innocent writer is sentenced to fourteen years of imprisonment for mere reason of talking about social injustices in his country.

Should we console the earthquake victims of “Zarand” or comfort the survivors of the “Ark Mosque” fire disaster, or mourn the fortieth day at which all the children in “Lordegan” school burnt to ashes, or protest the strange and unfair sentence of Arash Sigarchi?

We know that we should not expect anything better from a country in which conversing is considered a crime.

Sentencing Mr. Sigarchi, undetermined situation of Mojtaba Smie Nejad and imprisonment of tens of writers and bloggers is the other side of the crisi coin. For a country without critics no better situation could be expected than what is happening in Iran right now.

We strongly protest sentencing Mr. Sigarchi and the undetermined situation of Mojtaba Samie Nejad and will do everything in our power to free them. We will use all our facilities to help those affected by the earthquake in Zarand.
document.write(farsinum("0")); Comment

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Dear Sir/Madame

Mr. Mojtaba Sami-e Nejad, a twenty-five years old university student and the writer of the blog "Man na Manam", has been arrested for the second time - only several days after his release from prison. His bail has been set to an impossible US$120,000 (40 years worth of the average salary in Iran).

Mr. Sami-e Nejad has been arrested for the sole reason of expressing his personal pinions in his blog. His arrest is considered unlawful even by the primitive standards of the Iranian judiciary. We demand his immediate and unconditional release and that an inquiry is held so that the judiciary system, the judge and his interrogators are held accountable for this unlawful arrest.

As a result of the totalitarian regime in Iran, details of the arrest have not been released. The lack of information regarding the arrest and confirmation of the wellbeing of Mr Sami-e Nejad raises grave doubts for his safety.

The Association of Iranian Blogwriters (Penlog) urges the human rights organizations to react to Mr. Sami-e Nejad’s arrest as soon as possible by demanding that the judiciary allows meetings with him and that either he is formally charged with a valid and legitimate crime or that he is released immediately.

We would like to remind the international community that Mr. Arash Sigarchi, writer of the blog "Panjereye Eltehab" is still in prison and no information is released concerning his situation.

The Association of Iranian Blogwriters (Penlog)
document.write(farsinum("1")); Comment