Canadian-Iranian filmmaker Maziar Bahari was among over 100 protestors, activists and journalists who appeared in court in Iran on Saturday, 1 August. Index on Censorship has been campaigning for his release with Newsweek, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Maziar Bahari has not been allowed to see a lawyer since his detention on 21 June.
The court has charged defendants with conspiring with foreign powers to create a revolution using terrorism, subversion and a media campaign to delegitimise election results. According to Newsweek, it is not yet clear whether Maziar Bahari has been charged, or what the specific charges against him might be. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has dismissed the case as a show trial. Critics have also described it as an attempt to intimidate the opposition.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as winner of Iran’s 12 June presidential election today.
According to the New York Times, the deputy prosecutor in Tehran, Abdolreza Mohebati, referred to a statement by Bahari in which he said that there was a “policy of the western media” to say that the trial was rigged before it even took place. The reporter and filmmaker also addressed journalists on the media’s alleged role in stirring up a “velvet revolution”. He also asked for forgiveness from the Iranian people and the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Maziar Bahari is a journalist, writer and filmmaker with a reputation for balanced, insightful reporting. The cynical use of him as a mouthpiece for the government is of great concern. Index on Censorship calls on the Iranian authorities to give Maziar Bahari immediate access to a lawyer and repeats its demand for his release.
