Iranian of the Day

JARAS: In an interview with JARAS, wife of journalist Farshad Ghorbanpour said that he is not allowed in-person visitation and furlough. "We can't request in-person visitation and furlough for him, because the Prosecutor has banned these [for him] because of [signing] the group statements that came out of the prison. When he was first imprisoned, he did not have a good psychological state, but now he has gotten used to the prison conditions. Though he is currently serving his prison sentence, he is occasionally interrogated for the statements," said Hajar Zamani.

Branch 28 of Tehran Revolutionary Court, under Judge Moghisseh, sentenced Farshad Ghorbanpour to one year in prison and $5,000 cash fines.

His charges were "acting against national security," "propagating against the state," and "earning illicit revenue through cooperating with Rooz Online Website." His sentence was upheld in its entirety by a Tehran Appeals Court. Previously, Ghorbanpour had been arrested in the summer of 2007 and he spent a month in prison.

"In fact he had received a letter, asking him to turn himself in and my husband was straightening out some of his affairs, so that when he went to prison we would not face any problems. But on 30 November 2011, they entered out home and arrested him," she added.

"My husband was charged with "acting against national security and propagating against the state" for his work with Rooz online Website, and they immediately issued a one-year prison ruling for him. However, they never officially announced that Rooz Online Website is an anti-Revolutionary website, and that writing and working with it is not allowed. After his sentence was issued and he appealed it, it was upheld at appeals level. I am really surprised by this ruling, as Mr. Ahmadinejad said once in his talks that 'we do not have an imprisoned journalists,' but you can see that my husband is one of such journalists in prison. He was arrested once before in 2007 and spent a month in prison, under interrogations. His charge back then, also, was working with Rooz website," said Ms. Zamani.v
Farshid Ghorbanpour has worked with newspapers and publications such as Ham Mihan, Kargozaran, Etemad-e Melli, Shahrvand-e Emrooz, and Mehrnameh."