Journalist Fariborz Soroush was arrested twice and kept in inhumane conditions in Evin Prison for allegedly spying on Iran, largely because of his work with citizen journalists. He eventually fled the country and resettled in France.
Name: Fariborz Soroush
Career: Radio Farda, Deutsche Welle and the website Khodnevis.
Charges: Propaganda against the regime, dissemination of falsehood, working with Radio Farda, insulting government officials and activities against national security.
During Fariborz Soroush’s first arrest, in February 2008, he was beaten and dragged to prison, where he was kept for over a year. “It was eight in the morning when five heavyset men burst into my apartment,” he said. “When I asked for an arrest warrant I was violently shoved, my house was ransacked and my personal belongings were confiscated. When they took me to Evin Prison, they put me in the solitary cell above the kitchen of Cell Block 209, where the glass of the windows was broken. It was freezing and despite the fact I wrapped myself in two blankets, a towel and the cell floor carpet, it wasn’t enough to keep the cold at bay.”
Several days later, they transferred him to solitary confinement in Cell Block 112, where he spent eight months until he was moved to Quarantine Ward 209. “I was in prison until May 18, 2009. Throughout this entire time I saw my family just very briefly twice when I was taken to court.”
“My interrogators had printouts of all my emails, schedules, reports and itineraries. They even knew, when I travelled to Turkey to meet with Radio Farda, the hotel I had stayed in and who I met. I was particularly questioned on the citizen journalists who occasionally sent reports to Radio Farda. I was accused of being the leader in a vast spying network. I repeatedly explained to them that the citizen journalists were ordinary people with no access to classified information but they wouldn’t believe me.”
Soroush’s bail was originally set at $150,000 but subsequently cut in half. When he was eventually released several months before the 2009 election, he was suffering from poor mental and physical health.
Before he’d had time to recover, he was re-arrested and sent to Evin Prison on June 14 by the Revolutionary Guards, where he spent 45 days in solitary confinement. After his father posted his bail, he was released.
Fearing a heavy sentence, Soroush fled the country and crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan. He eventually settled in Paris with the help of Reporters Without Borders.
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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