His Excellency Mohammad Khatami
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran

Vienna, 11 February 1998

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 100 countries; is deeply concerned about the fate of a prominent Iranian newspaper editor.

Morteza Firoozi, a former editor-in-chief of the English-language daily Iran News, was arrested in May or June 1997 and held incommunicado for several weeks. In October it was reported in the Iranian press that he was being held on espionage charges. On 28 January 1998, the official Iranian news agency announced that he had been sentenced to death.

IPI is now informed that Firoozi’s appeal has been rejected by the Supreme Court and that he may be hanged within the next few days. We understand that only commutation by Your Excellency may save him.

Firoozi, a frequent commentator on Iranian politics, had earlier served as editor of the Teheran Times, an English-language newspaper set up after the 1979 Islamic revolution. He helped establish Iran News in 1994. The daily, which is widely read by foreign diplomats, has been attacked by hardline newspapers for being too soft on the United States.

In the absence of any information about the circumstances of Firoozi’s trial, IPI is concerned about the due process of the law being denied him, that he is facing imminent execution on charges that have not been substantiated in an open and fair legal process and that his conviction may be an attempt to silence both him and other members of Iran’s press.

IPI therefore urges Your Excellency to commute Firoozi’s sentence and, if he is indeed being held solely for his activities as a journalist, to ensure that he is immediately released.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director