Mostafa Dehghan, a journalist known for his articles on social issues and women’s rights, was incarcerated for more than three months and denied legal aid. Released in 2010, he was banned from practicing journalism for more than three years.
Name: Mostafa Dehghan
Career: Freelance journalist and women’s’ rights activist; wrote about social issues for several newspapers including Hamshahri Monthly, Tehran-e Emrouz and Arman; worked with news sites ANA and Naft and the women’s rights website Change for Equality.
Charges: Propaganda against the regime and conspiracy against national security.
Mostafa Dehghan and his wife were arrested at midnight on January 1, 2010. For several days his conditions and whereabouts were unknown. When he was permitted to call his family on January 4, he told them about his arrest and that he had not been informed of the charges against him.
His lawyer, Khalil Bahamian, was barred from using his power of attorney in his case, despite his repeated visits to Evin Prison and the Revolutionary Court; Deghan remained in jail until mid-March 2010 with no explanation. Although no court order had been issued, security forces informed him verbally he was banned from journalism until September 2013.
In June 2014, Mostafa Dehghan and 146 other Iranian journalists signed a letter demanding the release of Saba Azarpeik, the jailed journalist whose circumstances are still unknown.
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.
Please contact info@iranwire.com with comments, updates or further information about cases.
Read other cases in the series:
Interested in writing for IranWire?
Share your stories.
comments