Akbar Ganji

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Akbar Ganji (اکبر گنجی in Persian) is an Iranian journalist and writer, imprisoned in Evin prison since April 22, 2000 after he took part in a conference held in Berlin on April 7 and 8, 2000. Ganji was on a hunger strike for more than 80 days from May 19, 2005 until early August, 2005 [1] except for a 12-day period of leave he was granted on May 30, 2005 ahead of the ninth presidential elections on June 17, 2005. His hunger strike was ended under unknown conditions and heavy security and infrmation quatantine in Milad hospital in Tehran while many feared his death. He is represented by a group of lawyers, including the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Shirin Ebadi. While on hunger strike Ganji wrote two letters to the free people of the world: 1 2.

Akbar Ganji, On 46th day of Hunger Strike

Akbar Ganji, On 33rd day of Hunger Strike

On July 12, 2005 the White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement that the US president, George W. Bush, called on Iran to release Ganji "immediately and unconditionally...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...Mr. Ganji, please know that as you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." the statement went on.

In his recent leave in June 2005 Ganji participated in interviews with several news agencies, criticizing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, and asking for his office to be put to public vote [2]. This led to a ruling by Saeed Mortazavi, the general prosecutor of Tehran, to arrest him again because of "illegal interviews". He returned to prison voluntarily on June 11, 2005 and started this latest hunger strike.

The Berlin conference was organized under the title "Iran after the elections" after the Majlis elections in February 2000, which resulted in a huge victory by reformist candidates. The gathering was termed "anti-Islamic" and "anti-revolutionary" by Iranian state TV, IRIB, which broadcast part of the conference on April 18, 2000. He was accused of having "damaged national security" and initially sentenced to ten years followed by five years internal exile, which meant he would be kept in a specific city other than Tehran and could not leave the country. On May 15, 2001 an appeal court reduced his 10-year sentence to six months and overturned his additional sentence of five years' internal exile. However, the Tehran prosecuter, challenged the appeal court decision and brought new charges against him in connection with newspaper articles he had written prior to April 2000, and his possession of photocopies of foreign newspapers. On July 16, 2001 he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment on charges of "collecting confidential information harmful to national security and spreading propaganda against the Islamic system".

He has written extensively as a journalist in a series of reformist newspapers, many of which were shut down by the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Collections of his articles appeared in books, notably, "The Dungeon of Ghosts" and "The Red Eminence, The Grey Eminences" focusing on the involvement of the former President of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and his Ministry of Intelligence, Ali Fallahian, in a series of killings of writers and dissidents. He has continued to write in prison. His writings in prison are smuggled out and widely distributed, especially on the web. Most notably he wrote a Republican Manifesto in six chapters in March 2002 laying out the basis of his proposal for a fully-fledged democratic republic for Iran. In particular he argued that all elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran must be boycotted. He later wrote a second book [3] of his Republican Manifesto in May 2005, ahead of the ninth Presidential elections in Iran, specifically arguing for a complete boycott of the presidential elections.

In 2000, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression honoured Ganji with an International Press Freedom Award.

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