Imprisoned Journalist Farshad Ghorbanipour in Limbo

Imprisoned reporter Farshad Ghorbanipour has been behind bars for over two weeks now but judiciary officials refrain from reducing his unusually high bail.

From Evin prison where he is being held, he has requested his family members to do whatever they can to secure his release, while his family members are not in a position to meet the 200 million Toman (about $235,000) bail set by the judge in the case. This has resulted in the continuation of his stay at the high security prison. “They got in touch with me from the court laws last week and requested a 200 million Toman bail for Farshad,” his wife told Rooz. “Unfortunately none of our close relatives can provide such a high bail, and those that have property worth this much, their property is held by a lien. After we informed the court officials of the situation they agreed that we provide any bail we can. But when we returned, they asked for at least 150 million Toman. My husband’s father is a retiree, and I do not work. We really cannot find such money. This is why I think they are just playing games with us. On the telephone they tell us we can bring whatever money we can collect, but when I show up at the court, they again talk of numbers that I cannot find.”

At the same time, the journalist guild’s attorney Heydari has till today not been able to do anything in this regard because his power of attorney has not been signed by his client and on the other hand he has not been informed of the details of the dossier. Talking to Rooz he explained that there are usually 5 kinds of bail from soft to temporary detention, which is determined by the judge. He concluded that if the defendant cannot provide the bail amount then nobody can do anything about the situation. “The law provides that if after the passage of two or two and a half months, the defendant cannot meet the bail amount, the judge has the power to reconsider the amount,” he told Rooz.

Farshadpour is the only detained journalist who has worked on most national newspapers who has a wife and a 5-year old son. His son Arman has suffered trauma from the day of his dad’s arrest has said that he wants to collect this amount, provided “daddy comes home now,” he has said.

It should be noted that the cases of two other journalists Soheil Asefi who is being held in Evin and Masoud Bastani who is routinely summoned to court for interrogation are also in limbo as no judgments or decisions have been made over them.