5-year jail term approved for newspaper employee Yaser Masoum

05/22/2011

GVF — An appeals court has approved a five-year jail term for Yaser Masoumi, a technical expert for a number of reformist publications, according to opposition websites.

Pro-Green Movement website Jaras has reported that a five-year prison sentence has been approved for Masoumi by an appeals court. The initial ruling was based on charges of “propagation” as well as “assembly and collusion” against the Islamic Republic.

Yaser Masoumi has worked for a number of reformist newspapers such as Shargh, Sarmayeh and Bahar.

He was arrested a few months after Iran’s rigged presidential election in June 2009, and was released on bail after enduring seventy days of imprisonment in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

According to Jaras, the heavy prison sentence, issued initially by Judge Salavati and later approved by Judge Moghisseh, was subject to legal scrutiny and based on “incomplete and false” information.

In April 2011, the two judges were named in the European Union’s list of 32 Iranian officials sanctioned for their role in human rights abuses in the country. The 27-nation bloc imposed visa bans and asset freezes on 32 individuals, ranging from judiciary judges to military, intelligence and police officials.

 

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