Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

<strong>Attacks</strong> on the Press in 2010Rooz Online in February that Amouee was sharing a 115-square-foot(10-square-meter) cell with 40 other prisoners.In July, Amouee and 14 other prisoners staged a 16-day hunger striketo protest mistreatment at Evin Prison. Prison officials punished themby denying family visits for a month, Jonbesh-e-Rah-e-Sabz reported.imprisoned: june 19, 2009Hamzeh Karami, JomhoriyatKarami, editor of the now-defunct reformist news website Jomhoriyat,was arrested on June 19, 2009, according to the website Nedaye Sabze-Azadi.Iranian authorities had banned Jomhoriyat just one weekbefore, the Asr-e-Iran news website reported.He was charged with “acting against national security through congregationand mutiny intended to disrupt public order,” “propagatingagainst the regime,” “propagating falsehoods,” and embezzlement,according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. His original 16-yearprison sentence was reduced to 11 years on appeal, the Committee ofHuman Rights Reporters reported in May 2010. He was also fined theequivalent of US$600,000.Karami, a close ally of reformist politician Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani,was coerced into confessions implicating himself and others, accordingto Reporters and Human Rights Activists of Iran.Despite his conviction, Karami paid a US$2 million bail and was releasedon furlough in May 14, 2010, according to the Kalame reformistnews website. But authorities sent him back to prison after he refusedto testify against Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former presidentturned government critic.In an August 2010 open letter to the prosecutor-general, Karami saidhe had been tortured in custody, coerced into making false confessions,threatened with rape, told his family members were beingsubjected to violence, denied access to a lawyer, and forced to witnessother inmates being beaten. Kalame reported in September thatKarami had been denied medical leave for his heart condition.imprisoned: july 3, 2009Issa Saharkhiz, freelanceSaharkhiz, a columnist for the reformist news websites RoozOnline and Norooz and a founding member of the Association ofIranian Journalists, was arrested while traveling in northern Iran, the382