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Another major political prisoner freed from Evin

October 11-13

One of Iran’s best-known political prisoners, newspaper editor Issa Saharkhiz, was freed from Evin prison last Thursday.

It wasn’t clear if Saharkhiz was one of the political prisoners pardoned last month by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi.

Saharkhiz was released just two months before the end of his full term.  The Judiciary could have freed him long ago.  In fact, it is rare for prisoners to serve their full terms in Iran, so the fact that he had not already been released showed the authorities were not eager to free him.

Saharkhiz was among the multitude of politically active people swept up in arrests after the disorders that followed the 2009 presidential elections.  He had been sentenced to three years imprisonment on charges of insulting the leadership and endangering national security.  Later, another year and a half was added to his sentence for other charges.

Khamenehi signed pardons for 80 prisoners last month.  Most of those freed were common criminals but at least 13, including lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, were political prisoners.

Saharkhiz, 59, was born in Abadan. From 1982 to 1992 he worked for the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) as a reporter and economics expert, but also reported on the Iran-Iraq War “directly from the front line” for the last two years of the war. 

In 1992, Saharkhiz was sent to the United States for five years to run IRNA’s office in New York. 

Saharkhiz had gotten to know Mohammad Khatami when Khatami was culture minister and oversaw IRNA.  In 1997, when Khatami was elected president, Saharkhiz returned to Iran and was put in charge of domestic publications under the new minister, Ataollah Mohajerani.  In that position, Saharkhiz became a household name for his active support of a lively and free press

In 1999, the hardline Judiciary began a crackdown on liberal publications, many of which had been licensed by Saharkhiz.  He then resigned. 

He founded the daily Akhbar-e Eqtesad (Economic News), which had a reformist and critical view of the management of Iran’s economy. Following the 2009 election Saharkhiz’s home was raided and his files confiscated. Saharkhiz refused to go to court, but a week later was captured in northern Iran and imprisoned.   

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