Iran: Journalist Ganji Suspends Hunger Strike

Adnkronos International:

The Iranian journalist and writer, Akbar Ganji, has suspended the hunger strike he began in prison on June 11, his wife, Massoumeh Shafii, told Adnkronos International (AKI). She confirmed the news after seeing him at the Milad hospital in the Iranian capital Tehran, where he was transferred from prison after his health worsened.

Shafii did not say what led her husband to break off his hunger strike. There is speculation in Tehran that Ganji's decision could be the result of a letter from UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in which he called for the immediate release of the journalist.

Ganji has been in prison since 2000, after being given a six year jail sentence for implicating top officials in a series of political assassinations, on charges of jeopardising state security and slandering Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

The prominent journalist began his hunger strike 70 days ago in protest at the treatment of political dissidents in Iran's jails. International rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as American president George W. Bush and the European parliament, have all called for Ganji's immediate release from prison.