Thursday, October 22, 2009

More Harsh Sentences Announced

Although Maziar Bahari's release is most welcome, especially before his wife is due to give birth to their first baby, he is of course one of the lucky ones. Maziar Bahari had the backing of news media and his colleagues, human rights groups and government officials lobbied well on his behalf.

Iranian journalist, Massoud Bastani, will not see the birth of his first born however, he got six years in prison.

On the same day that Bahari arrived in UK, Kian Tajbakhsh, a graduate of UCL and Imperial College in London, received a harsh 12 years prison sentence.

Shahabedin Tabatabaii, head of the Participation Front's Youth organisation and a member of the press guild in Iran got five years. Tabatabaii is also former president Khatami's nephew.

The regime mistakenly thinks these people were the leaders of the protests and by putting them in prison they will decapitate the Iranian pro-democracy movement. Yet as the massive protests planned for 4th November will show the authorities, each street, each district now has its own protest committees and that kind of organisation can not be decapitated.

No comments: