Released Iranian reformist journalists write letters of repentance: report
(AFP)
4 December 2004
TEHERAN - Three Iranian reformist journalists released in the past days have written letters of repentance, saying they were “brainwashed” by foreigners and “counter-revolutionaries”, press reports said Saturday.
Newspapers have carried the letters of repentance allegedly written by Omid Memarian, Shahram Rafizadeh and Roozbeh Mir-Ebrahimi to the head of Iran’s hardline judiciary.
The trio were detained in a recent crackdown on reformist journalists and contributors to controversial Internet sites.
“I was brainwashed by hardline elements to destroy the image of the regime by relating with counter-revolutionaries and talking to foreign radio,” said the letter by Memarian, who maintained a controversial web log.
“I and people like me in the past years have been trapped by the ones who were merely concerned with their own political benefits and used us as puppets,” Mir-Ebrahimi’s letter said, according to the reports carried by several papers.
“I have in the past years insulted the Supreme Leader. I was made to believe all the problems on the way to reforms stemmed from the head of the regime,” it added.
“I spread lies as I was influenced and encouraged by the ones who have for years been wounding the Islamic regime,” read a letter written by Rafizadeh, according to the same reports.
The journalists’ lawyer was not available to provide confirmation.
Omid Memarian and Shahram Rafizadeh were released from jail on Wednesday evening on a bail of 500 million rials (56,800 dollars), student news agency ISNA said. Roozbeh Mir-Ebrahimi was released the week before on a bail of 300 million rials (34,000 dollars).
In the past months, Iran’s hardline judiciary arrested a number of reformist journalists accused of publishing propaganda against the regime, acting against national security, disturbing the public mind and also insulting religious sanctities.