Four Iranian bloggers sentenced to a total of 8.5 years of prison term and 124 lashes, by a criminal court in Tehran. Bloggers Javad Gholam Tamimi, Shahram Rafizadeh, Roozbeh MireEbrahimi and Omid Memarian are convicted on variety of charges like "participation in formation of groups to disturb national security," "propaganda against the state," "dissemination of disinformation to disturb public opinion by writing articles" and "interviews with foreign radio broadcasts." Some above mentioned bloggers have more charges like "treason against country", "insulting supreme leader" and "possession of playing cards" which the judge referred to as "gambling tools."
These bloggers were tortured and coerced to confess after being arrested in 2004. Even a judicial investigation had confirmed they were subjected to torture to confess but yet again judge used those confessions to convict them and in a greater scale silence bloggers and media.
Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East division at Human Rights Watch said:
"The Iranian judiciary is trying to prosecute government critics using vague, overbroad laws whose very names restrict free expression. Iran should be prosecuting the officials accused of torture, not the bloggers accused of holding opinions."Joe Stork, deputy director of human rights group's Middle East division said:
"These sentences are shocking, given that the head of the judiciary himself admitted the evidence had been obtained by coercion, the judges should be investigating and prosecuting abusers, not their victims."Justice is long dead in Islamic totalitarian Iran.
Related links:
4 bloggers sentenced in Iran
Iran: Prosecute Torturers, Not Bloggers
Iran: Judiciary Should Admit Blogger Abuse
Iran: Torture Used to Obtain ‘Confessions’
