Posted on 12/17/2005 5:34:53 AM PST by F14 Pilot
Tehran, 16 Dec. (AKI) - The wife of Iranian journalist, Akbar Ganji, who is imprisoned in a Tehran jail has said that her husband has again received death threats in prison. "A representative of the chief prosecutor visited my husband in jail, and issued a new death threat saying that he will only leave the cell wearing a 'kaftan' [the traditional white blanket that is used to wrap those who die in Islamic countries]," said Massoumeh Shafii, the wife of the dissident journalist. She said she was told this by prison officials - who over the last four weeks have denied her access to her husband.
If Ganji "does not revise his positions, we prefer that he does not leave the jail alive," the officials said.
Shafii first told Adnkronos International (AKI) in late November that that her husband had received death threats while in jail.
Ganji has spent more than 2500 days in jail after having been convicted of offending Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and for having put at risk the security of the country. "The Iranian authorities are looking to silence Ganji's case and to leave him to die in jail," Shafii told AKI.
"They are looking to divert the international attention onto other themes, so that no one can any longer worry about the case of my husband and other political prisoners in Iran," she said.
Ganji, who three months ago broke his hunger strike, continues to lose weight. The Iranian writer now weighs 45 kilograms and suffers from many medical conditions including respiratory problems. A doctor from the clinic within the Evin prison informed Ganji's family that the prison doctors face difficulties to access the ward where the writer is being kept in isolation since July.
"The last time I saw Akbar, he was a skeleton covered by skin, he could not stand on his feet and he was completely bent-doubled ," said the dissident's wife.
Shafii said she is very worried and desperate. "I ask all the men of good will, inside and outside of the Islamic republic, not to leave my husband to die in jail," she said. "Their [the Iranian authorities] plan is to deviate the national and international public attention from the question of human rights," she added.
Thought you might be interested in this story!
How would you feel if you were in his shoes?!
There is none!
There are no more elitist racists than in the ranks of pampered main stream media liberals.
Maybe the US should embrace and celebrate diversity and try some more of this ourselves. We could start with the entire staffs of the NYT, WAPO and LAT, Newsweak and Time. I'm usre they'd volunteer.
The sad thing is that I (couple of other guys) have been fighting bigots on FR all the day about the issues in Iran and it is so hard to convince them that there us a big difference between the people of Iran and the idiot mullahs running that country!
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