Outspoken journalist Farshad Ghorban-Pour, who has worked for a range of print and online outlets , was arrested in 2007 2009, and 2010, and has appeared before Iran’s infamous “hanging judge,” known for handing down harsh sentences against reformist journalists.
Name: Farshad Ghorban-Pour
Career: Journalist; worked with newspapers Farhikhtegan, Ham Mihan, Kar Gozaran, Shahrvand-e Emrouz, the magazine Mehr Nameh and web publications Rooz Online and News Online.
Charges: Activities against national security, propaganda against the regime, and financial or other gain from association with a disreputable website.
Over the last decade, Farshad Ghorban-Pour has written for domestic publications but has also worked with News Online, a Persian-language website in France run by exiled Iranian journalists. He was arrested in summer 2007 and released on bail a month later.
Revolutionary Court’s Branch 28, presided over by Judge Moghisei, the so-called “hanging judge”—known for handing down harsh sentences to reformist journalists—sentenced him to one year in prison and a cash fine for activities against national security, propaganda against the regime and “cooperation” with the website Rooz Online.
Ghorban-Pour continued his journalistic activities until 2009, when, following the disputed presidential election, he signed a letter appealing to religious leaders, presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi and former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hashemi Rafsanjani to unite against the “coup d’état”. A total of 293 journalists and civil rights activists signed the letter. He was also one of 300 journalists who, in the autumn of 2009, wrote a letter to the Tehran prosecutor, appealing for the release of imprisoned journalists and for the Iran’s Journalists Guild to be reopened.
On December 1, 2010, security agents arrested Ghorban-Pour at his home. The verdict against him had been upheld by the appeals court and he was sent to prison. Three days later, he spoke to his family on the phone and told them that that he was being held at Evin Prison and was likely to be sent to Cell Block 350, where political prisoners are held.
“I, Farshad Ghorban-Pour, am not a criminal, “ he wrote on March 20, 2012 from prison, marking the Iranian new year. “I am a journalist who has been sentenced to one year in prison and fined for nothing other than reporting and interviews. Now I am doing time at Evin’s Cell Block 350. Outside, my son, Arman and wife, Hajar, are waiting for me. I am sure we will live on and tomorrow is ours. Happy new year to all! Be happy and proud. Be hopeful that this hope is not in vain. It is not in vain to pay this price. Happy new year.”
In May 2012 security guards attacked Cell Block 350 and transferred Ghorban-Pour and several other inmates to solitary confinement in Cell Block 240. The inmates went on hunger strike.
Ghorban-Pour and three other inmates broke their hunger strike on June 17. About a month later his sentence was reduced and he was released.
This is part of IranWire’s series Crime: Journalism, a portfolio on the legal and political persecution of Iranian journalists and bloggers, published in both Persian and English.
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