Iran jails pro-reform journalist, bans two papers

Sep 28, 2010 |

TEHRAN

Tags:

Iran

Iran has sentenced to three years in jail a pro-reform journalist accused of insulting supreme guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and banned two reformist newspapers, an opposition website reported.

Issa Saharkhiz, who was accused of "insulting the supreme guide and (publishing) propaganda against the regime, was also banned from working for three years and from leaving Iran for one year, Sahamnews website reported on Monday.

Saharkhiz was arrested during the protest movement that erupted in Iran following the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.

Meanwhile, the authorities banned the pro-reform daily Andishe No (New Thinking) and the weekly Bahar Zanjan (The Spring of Zanjan), named after the northern Iranian town Zanjan, the website said.

Several newspapers have been shut down since the re-election of the hardline President and dozens of journalists have been rounded up and sentenced to heavy prison terms.

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