Tehran Frees Iranian-Canadian Journalist From Custody
Posted October 17, 2009 4:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was freed on bail Saturday, almost four months after he was arrested following Iran’s disputed presidential election, the official media said.
The Islamic Republic News Agency said the Newsweek reporter was freed from Tehran’s Evin Prison after posting bail of 3 billion rials, or about $300,000.
Newsweek confirmed the release in a statement posted on its website.
“We are relieved that Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari is home with his family today,” the U.S. magazine said.
“We would like to thank all of those who supported Maziar through this long and uncertain period.”
Bahari, 42, was arrested June 21 while covering the election and was later charged with espionage.
Iranian authorities didn’t specify the reasons for Bahari’s release, but Newsweek speculated he was released on humanitarian grounds.
Bahari and his wife are expecting their first child Oct. 26 and his wife, Paola Gourley, has experienced serious health complications.
Gourley, who lives in London, England, was rushed to hospital by ambulance Monday, two weeks before her due date, after she suffered bleeding due to stress.
At the time she made an appeal to the Iranian government that her husband be released.
The Canadian government has made several attempts to persuade Iran to release Bahari, the latest in the past week. Ottawa had no confirmation Saturday that Bahari was released.
Several hundred authors, journalists, and filmmakers from around the world, including several Nobel Prize winners, signed petitions calling for Bahari’s release, Newsweek said.
Bahari was among more than 100 prisoners put on mass trial in August, accused of being part of an opposition plot to help topple Iran’s clerical leaders.
The opposition, which believes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election in June was fraudulent, has called the trial a sham.
With files from the Associated Press
