Tehran: Iran has sentenced to three years in
jail a pro-reform journalist accused of insulting supreme
guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and banned two reformist
newspapers, an opposition website reported.
Issa Saharkhiz, who was accused of "insulting the supreme
guide and (publishing) propaganda against the regime, was also
banned from working for three years and from leaving Iran for
one year, Sahamnews website reported yesterday.
Saharkhiz was arrested during the protest movement that
erupted in Iran following the contested re-election of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.
Meanwhile the authorities banned the pro-reform daily
Andishe No (New Thinking) and the weekly Bahar Zanjan (The
Spring of Zanjan), named after the northern Iranian town
Zanjan, the website said.
Several newspapers have been shut down since the
re-election of the hardline president and dozens of
journalists have been rounded up and sentenced to heavy prison
terms.
PTI
