Arrested during the clampdown that followed the 2009 election, journalist and campaigner Rouzbeh Karimi faced conspiracy against national security and propaganda charges.
Name: Rouzbeh Karimi
Career: Newspaper journalist for Shargh, Jomhouriat, Etemad and Kar Gozaran.
Charges: Conspiracy against national security and propaganda against the regime.
Rouzbeh Karimi became politically active when he joined the Islamic Society as an undergraduate student at the University of Ahvaz. Soon after, he decided to major in human rights studies at Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran. Though the university approved his application, when the Ministry of Intelligence became aware of his plans, they banned Karimi from continuing his education. A year later, Karimi was allowed to continue his studies on the condition that he signed a letter promising the Intelligence Ministry he would not embark on any activities deemed to be contrary to the good of the Islamic Republic.
As the campaign season began for the 2009 presidential election, Karimi put his support behind Mir Hossein Mousavi , working on his campaign in Tehran. Intelligence Ministry agents arrested Karimi at his home on 3 December, 2009, during the clampdown that followed the disputed election. His wife, lawyer Forough Mirzaee, and houseguests present at the time of his arrest were also detained.
Karimi spent more than two months in solitary confinement or in two-prisoner cells, but his family were not informed about his whereabouts, or those of his wife. He was repeatedly interrogated and questioned for his journalistic activities. He was released on bail in March 2010.
In July 2010, a Revolutionary Court sentenced Karimi to five years in prison. The case was presided over by Judge Salavati, nicknamed the “Judge of Death” for his verdicts against political opposition figures. The appellate court cleared Karimi of the propaganda charge, handing down a suspended sentence of three years and ten months for conspiracy against the regime.
This is part of IranWire’s series Crime: Journalism, a portfolio on the legal and political persecution of Iranian journalists and bloggers, published in both Persian and English.
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