Words of a Detained Blogger.

Omidreza Mirsayafi was a 28 year old blogger who we have talked about a couple times before in our blog; but recently Reporters Without Borders posted his last letter sent to the organization. Mirsayafi was a freelance journalist who had started blogging around the same time he started work; “The blog was intended above all to be artistic and cultural, but it sometimes included satirical entries”.
Mirsayafi goes on to explain how on the 22nd of April, the Tehran revolutionary court prosecutor's office arrested him, seized his belongings, computer, papers, and other documents and placed him in Evin prison without giving reason or detail to his arrest. The next day they charged him with activities against the country’s security because of what he posted on his blog. “While held in Evin prison, I was interrogated 20 times about these charges without being able to talk to a lawyer”, Mirsayafi writes. They had him repeat his confession on video, so if authorities deem it necessary they could air his confession on national television. He explains after 41 days of being held he could now post bail which was $100,000.
Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah (Mirsayafi’s lawyer) was not informed of the verdict before Mirsayafi’s case was sent to sentencing. Mirsayafi’s lawyer had 21 days to appeal the verdict but because he never received it he was unable to do so. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison…and ultimately his life.
“Mr. Dadkhah told me that, in his view, the court had deliberately refrained from notifying him of the verdict because of the likelihood that it would be revised on appeal and that the court was therefore trying to have the sentence implemented as quickly as possible. That is my story.”. Those were the last words written by Omidreza Mirsayafi to the organization.
Reporters without boarders called for an independent probe in to the arrest and death of Omidreza Mirsayafi. After his death his body was hastily incinerated, after his death it was then brought up that he was “depressive and suicidal”.
Craig Walker
Iran