Heavy Bails for Imprisoned Journalist

While journalist Soheil Asefi was sent yesterday directly from his court to prison, the judiciary set a 2,000 million Rials [about $225,000] bail for the release of another detained journalist, Farshad Ghorbanpour.

At the same time that Soheil Asefi was responding to questions posed by interrogators, Farshad Ghorbanpour made a call to his wife asking her to prepare the necessary bail amount for his temporary release.

Minutes later, prosecutors contacted Mrs. Ghorbanpour and announced that the bail amount was set at 2,000 million rials. Unable to collect the heavy bail amount, Mrs. Ghorbanpour plans to meet with the prosecutor along with her husband’s attorney, Nemat Ahmadi – even though she believes, “It doesn’t seem like they would pay any attention to what I have to say.”

According to some reports, Soheil Asefi has also been moved to prison. Officials have told Asefi’s mother that they will contact her later with more information.

In another call, journalist Masoud Bastani was summoned to interrogation for the third time. Bastani went through two serious interrogations last week, when he was extensively questioned about his professional activities. Bastani’s wife, Mahsa Amrabadi, told a German radio station, “[My husband] was interrogated about some general issues in relation to his connections with individuals and foreign-based websites, and also about some general topics.” According to Mrs. Bastani, interrogators will “begin discussing more particular issues later today.”

Masoud Bastani is the former editor of “Neday’e Eslahat” [“Voice of Reforms”] weekly, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment and sixty lashes for “libel and slander” last year.

The houses of Masoud Bastani, Soheil Asefi, and Farshad Ghorbanpour were raided and searched simultaneously last week by security agents. The personal belongings of all three, including their computers, notes, mobile phones, passports and identity cards were confiscated. Farshad Ghorbanpour was moved to Evin Prison on that day, while Masoud Bastani was asked to report for interrogation the following day. He was interrogated once again, and was summoned for a third time today.

Soheil Asefi was asked to appear in court yesterday, and was arrested when he showed up. It has been said that other journalists are going to be targeted by the government. Meanwhile, the house of another journalist was searched and he was summoned to court.

The new wave of confronting dissident journalists has sparked the reaction of various international human rights organizations, which have identified Iran as the world’s largest prison for journalists.