Iranian Dissident Journalist Likely Beaten in Prison

Eli Lake, The NY Sun:

Evidence is mounting that dissident journalist Akbar Ganji has been beaten in prison since ending his hunger strike in August and being promised release.

In an unusual public statement yesterday, a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said, "Over the past week, the United States has received reports that jailed Iranian activist Akbar Ganji's health is at serious risk." On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch issued an alert that the opposition leader was under increasing pressure to disavow his writings. "Ganji's situation is now extremely critical," the deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch said.

Mr. Ganji attracted international attention over the summer when President Bush, European leaders, and the United Nations demanded the Islamic Republic of Iran release him from jail during his hunger strike. While in prison he published two open letters calling for a nonviolent movement aimed at removing Iran's unelected supreme leader from power. Mr. Ganji was initially sentenced in July 2001 for writing a book and series of articles claiming that senior members of the regime in Tehran ordered the murders of dissident writers during 1998.

In June, Mr. Ganji was re-arrested after giving an interview to Rooz Online in which he called on Iranians to boycott the presidential elections that brought President Ahmadinejad to power. Last week, Mr. Ahmadinejad suggested that Israel and its founding ideology, Zionism, should be wiped off the map.

In August, Mr. Ganji's wife, Massoumeh Shafieh, told reporters that her husband had been promised his freedom in exchange for ending his hunger strike. But last month, Ms. Shafiei published an open letter and gave an interview to Rooz online complaining that her husband's condition had worsened. According to her, Mr. Ganji has been kept in solitary confinement in a section of Evin prison known as Alef-2 since September 3.

"The United States calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Akbar Ganji, as well as his immediate access to medical assistance and legal representation," Mr. McCormack said yesterday. In his statement, the spokesman added that Mr. Ganji is one of many "courageous Iranians like Ahmad Batebi, Hoda Saber, Taqi Rahmani, and Reza Alijani,who have challenged the clerical regime's repressive policies and who have suffered dire consequences for their efforts to advance the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people."

Foggy Bottom has yet to allocate funding for Iranian democracy movements based in Iran despite budget authorizations from 2004 and 2005 that would allow them to spend such money. READ MORE