Reporters Without Borders welcomes release of journalist but deplores arrest of another

Reporters Without Borders today welcomed the release of Abdollah Nuri, managing editor of the daily newspaper Khordad, after three years in jail but condemned the arrest the same day of journalist Abbas Abdi, a director of the Ayandeh public opinion firm. "We are delighted that Nuri has been freed after being unjustly sentenced to five years in prison," said Reporters Without Border secretary-general Robert Ménard. "But we are very disturbed at the arrest of Abdi and fear other journalists may be detained in coming days. We call on the European Union, which will soon be having talks with Iran about human rights, to exert pressure on the authorities." He called for the release of Abdi and nine other journalists being held in Iran's prisons. Abdi, a former editor of the now-closed daily paper Salam who has worked on many pro-reform newspapers, was arrested on 4 November at his home, which the head of court no. 410 (known as the press court), Judge Said Mortazavi, ordered searched. He was accused of "receiving money from the US polling firm Gallup or from a foreign embassy" as a result of the publication on 22 September by one of Iran's official news agencies, IRNA, of an Ayandeh poll that showed 74.4% of Iranians favoured a resumption of ties with the United States. Abdi had been jailed for 11 months in 1991 for criticising the then-president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Nuri, a reformist close to President Mohammad Khatami, was pardoned on 4 November by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme spiritual authority, after his brother had been killed in a road accident. He had been arrested on 27 November 1999 and sentenced the same day by the special religious court to five years in prison and fined 15 million rials (about 5,600 euros). His newspaper was closed down. He was accused of 15 offences, including "anti-religious propaganda," insulting Ayatollah Khomeini, "undermining public opinion" and "having links with the United States." He denounced the verdict as illegal and said the court had violated the Constitution.