Journalist Keyvan Mehregan released

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Keyvan Mehregan, poet and journalist who has served as head of the political sections of Shargh and Etemad newspapers, has been released on bail.

According to news provided to CHRR, Keyvan Mehregan was released from prison today on 100 million tomans bail. This journalist had previously been arrested several times during the past few years.

Other journalists released on bail since the crackdown on journalists in late January are Motehareh Shafiee, reporter at Arman, Ali Dehghan, business editor at Bahar; Javad Daliri, editor-in-chief of Etemad; Hossein Yaghchi, editor at Aseman Weekly; and Fatemeh Sagharchi, editor for the news website Jamaran.

Milad Fadai Asl, Soleiman Mohammadi, Narges Joudaki, Pejman Mousavi, Ameli Amryaee, Nasrin Takhayori, Sasan Aghaee, Reyhaneh Tabatabai, Pourya Ameli, Akbar Montajebi, Saba Azarpeik, are among the group of journalists detained in January who remain in custody. Another journalist, Ehsan Mazandarani, a reporter for Etemad, was arrested a few days ago and also remains behind bars.

The Intelligence Ministry has released statements claiming the journalists are part of a conspiracy ring affiliated with the BBC and there have been reports that attempts have been made to obtain false confessions from the imprisoned journalists. In its statement on February 19th, the Intelligence Ministry announced that journalists had been summoned and interrogated regarding their relations with the “British government spy organization” but no evidence was presented to support this claim.