Sigarchi, a former editor of the daily newspaper Gilan-e-Emruz and a Web blogger, was sentenced to three years in prison by an Iranian appellate court on several offenses, including insulting Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and propagandizing against the Islamic Republic in his online blog.
Sigarchi had posted entries and given interviews to Western radio stations that were critical of the government’s harassment of fellow bloggers. He was originally given a 14-year sentence by a revolutionary court in Gilan in February 2005.