Editor’s note: Journalist and commentator Mohsen Kadivar was released from Evin Prison in Tehran on July 17, 2000, after serving approximately 17 months in prison. He was released upon completion of his sentence.
Iranian authorities arrested Mohsen Kadivar, a reformist cleric and academic, and put him on trial for "disseminating lies" and "misleading public opinion." On April 21, Iran's Special Court for Clergy found Kadivar guilty and sentenced him to serve 18 months in prison. The charges stemmed from articles and interviews he had published in Iranian newspapers, as well as public lectures in which he criticized the Islamic Republic.
In one article, published in the now defunct daily Khordad on February 14, Kadivar attacked Iran's ruling clerics, comparing their authoritarian rule to that of the shah.
His conviction was upheld on appeal in July. Kadivar has been in jail since February 27, when he was first arrested.