Pourzand's 11-year jail sentence confirmed on appeal

Reporters Without Borders said today it was "appalled" at the confirmation of an 11-year jail sentence passed on 71-year-old journalist Siamak Pourzand for alleged subversion. "The Iranian authorities have once more shown their great contempt for freedom of expression," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. The organisation was also very concerned, he said, about the number of journalists and editors being summoned by the authorities in recent weeks. Iran is holding ten journalists in jail, making it the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East. The country's supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, officially called the Guide of the Islamic Revolution, is on the Reporters Without Borders worldwide list of predators of press freedom. The Iranian media reported on 7 July that the Teheran appeals court had confirmed the 11-year jail sentence Pourzand received on 3 May for "spying and undermining state security" and "having links with monarchists and counter-revolutionaries.". Pourzand was seized by security police on 29 November last year and held in a secret place for four months without access to a lawyer or a doctor. He was head of Teheran's artistic and cultural centre and also a cultural commentator for several reformist newspapers that have since been shut down. He was also frequently heard on foreign radio stations. His sister told ISNA, one of Iran's official news agencies, on 14 June that she was very worried about his health and conditions of detention. She was allowed to see him at the end of May at the Amaken centernear Teheran, but permission for family members to visit him is very rare. In the past two months, many editors have been summoned by Court 1410, known as "the press court," including those of the newspapers Mardomsalari, Nowroz, Aftab-e-Yazad and Toseh. Other journalists have been summoned at the same time by the Adareh Amaken section of the capital's police force which usually handles "social" offences and is considered close to the intelligence services. Alireza Farahmand; a journalist with Neshat and Tous, both suspended publications, Iraj Jamshidi, chief editor of Eghtesad-e-Asia, Esmail Jamshidi, managing editor of the magazine Gardon, Nushabe Amiri and Hoshang Asadi, of the film magazine Gozarech-e-Film, were all questioned for several hours each about their supposed ties with what the regime calls "the subversive cultural front" which Pourzand is accused of belonging to.