November 5, 1999
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi
Head of the Judiciary
622 3rd Ave, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its profound concern about the arrest on Tuesday of Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, editor-in-chief of the daily Asr-e-Azadegan.
Shamsolvaezin was taken into custody on November 2 after a Tehran court ordered his arrest, reportedly because he failed to appear in court to face charges of insulting Islam. The charges stem from articles published in the now-defunct daily Neshat, which Shamsolvaezin edited until judicial authorities closed the paper on September 5, 1999.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported yesterday that Shamsolvaezin had been additionally charged with “forgery.” CPJ has been unable to determine the exact nature of the charge. IRNA also reported that Shamsolvaezin is being held in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Mashallah Shamsolvaezin’s arrest is only the most recent in a long series of Iranian judicial attempts to silence independent media. Over the past year, dozens of journalists have been arrested or prosecuted by Iranian courts because of their published work. Such measures violate basic press freedom norms and serve only to stifle the free debate that is essential in a democratic society. We remind Your Excellency that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants journalists the right to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
We hope that Your Excellency will exert your influence to ensure that Mashallah Shamsolvaezin is released immediately and that the charges against him are dropped. We further urge you to take all necessary measures to guarantee that all journalists in Iran are allowed to practice their profession freely, without reprisal from judicial authorities.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We look forward to your timely response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
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His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi
Head of the Judiciary
622 3rd Ave, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017