Iranian journalist gets prison term, desert exile

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Jan. 3, 2010

TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian journalist lost an appeal Sunday against his
conviction on charges of spreading propaganda against the ruling Islamic
establishment and was sentenced to six years in prison and five years of
internal exile in a remote desert town.

The court also confirmed a lifelong ban on political activity for the
prominent reporter, Ahmad Zeidabadi, who was also once a student activist.

Zeidabadi was among more than 100 political figures and activists tried
together in the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election, which
the opposition says was rigged to give Mahmoud Ahmadinejad another term in
office.

The mass trial and a crackdown on street demonstrations has failed to
silence the opposition movement, which has also confronted Iran's clerical
leaders and demanded greater social and political freedoms.

Iran's interior minister said on Sunday that he has ordered police to show
no leniency to anyone who turns up at opposition protests.

At least eight people died during anti-government protests in cities
across Iran on Dec. 27, including a nephew of opposition leader Mir
Hossein Mousavi. It was the worst bloodshed since the height of the unrest
in the weeks immediately after the June election.

While on trial, Zeidabadi went on a nine-day hunger strike in August and
had to be hospitalized, a pro-reform Web site reported at the time.

The 44-year-old Zeidabadi led a group of reformists who were once members
of Iran's largest student organization, the Office for Fostering Unity.

His wife, Mahdieh Mohammadi, said her husband's lawyer informed her of the
appeals court's ruling on Sunday. As part of his sentence, he will have to
spend five years in internal exile in the town of Gonabad, about 620 miles
— or 1,000 kilometers — east of the capital, on the edge of the
second-largest desert in Iran, the Namak desert, his wife told The
Associated Press.

Authorities detained Mousavi's political adviser, Mohammad Reza Tajik, on
Saturday, though there has been no official comment on what he is accused
of.

Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar again accused the United States,
Britain and Israel of supporting the unrest in Iran and promised a harsher
crackdown against protesters, state television reported Sunday.

"We see that Mr. Obama and British and Israeli officials support and lead
violators," the report quoted Najjar as saying. "We ordered police not to
show any leniency. If someone appears in protests and accompanies
violators, police will treat him strongly."

Najjar claimed that more than 3 million people participated in a
pro-government rally on Wednesday in which demonstrators called for the
execution of opposition leaders.

Authorities have detained dozens of activists since the Dec. 27 opposition
protests. At Tehran's Azad University, 10 student activists were suspended
for up to two terms of study for participating in protests, state TV
reported.

Besides the internal unrest, Iran also faces confrontation on the
international level over its nuclear activity and its missile programs.
The United States and its European allies accuse Iran of seeking to
develop a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of a civilian nuclear
program.

Iran denies that and says it only wants to generate nuclear power.

The standoff has prompted Israeli threats to take military action against
Iran's nuclear sites if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the dispute.

State-run Press TV reported Sunday that Iran is planning to stage
large-scale war games next month to improve its "defensive capabilities."

The report quoted the army's ground forces chief, Gen. Ahmad Reza
Pourdastan, as saying the exercises will seek to prepare Iran's military
to repel any possible attack from its enemies.

The drills will involve the regular armed forces and the elite
Revolutionary Guard, which hold regular exercises two or three times a
year.