Who Is Akbar Ganji?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, Media, The WorldHe’s a political prisoner of the Iranian government and President Bush and a growing number of Iranian students are calling for his release.
From the New York Sun:
Mr. Ganji’s wife, Massoumeh Shafii, yesterday told reporters that her husband would continue his hunger strike - now in its second month - until he is released unconditionally. Mr. Ganji, who was initially arrested in 2001, was sent back to Evin prison on June 11 after he violated the terms of his medical leave and gave an interview urging his fellow citizens to boycott last month’s presidential election.“After 31 days of hunger strike, Ganji has a very good morale and wishes to continue his action,” Ms. Shafii told the semi-official Ilna news agency after meeting her husband at Evin, according to Agence France-Presse. “He is demanding his unconditional release and believes the only way to secure this is by continuing his hunger strike. He says he will only eat when he is unconditionally freed.”
[...]
In the letter Mr. Ganji addressed to all “free peoples,” he said he had lost more than 40 pounds on his hunger strike, a diet that has consisted of water and sugar cubes. Mr. Ganji was arrested in 2001 for publishing a book called “The Red Eminence.” In it, he tied his country’s political leaders, including a former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to a series of murders of prominent critics of the regime in the late 1990s.
And here’s Bush’s call to the Iranian government:
Akbar Ganji, an Iranian journalist who since 1999 has been routinely sentenced to prison by the Iranian government for advocating free speech, is again in jail because of his political views. Through his now month-long hunger strike, Mr. Ganji is demonstrating that he is willing to die for his right to express his opinion. President Bush is saddened by recent reports that Mr. Ganji’s health has been failing and deeply concerned that the Iranian government has denied him access to his family, medical treatment, and legal representation. Mr. Ganji is sadly only one victim of a wave of repression and human rights violations engaged in by the Iranian regime. His calls for freedom deserve to be heard. His valiant efforts should not go in vain. The President calls on all supporters of human rights and freedom, and the United Nations, to take up Ganji’s case and the overall human rights situation in Iran. The President also calls on the Government of Iran to release Mr. Ganji immediately and unconditionally and to allow him access to medical assistance. Mr. Ganji, please know that as you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.
Now, somebody linked to this before and I’d like to attribute, but I forgot where I got these links from.
Anybody remember which blog this first showed up at?
This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2005 and is filed under Foreign Policy, Media, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
