According to Majzooban Noor, the Branch 2 of Shiraz Revolutionary Court issued its verdicts against three Gonabadi Dervishes, Messrs. Hamid-Reza Arayesh, Kazem Dehghan and Mohammad-Ali Shamshirzan, convicting all of them to life in exile. They are charged with “moharebeh (enmity with God)”, “spreading corruption on the earth”, “membership in illegal group (being Dervish/ friary!) and “assembly and collusion with the intent to disrupt national security”.
for the rest of his life
Masih Alinejad had an interview with Hamid-Reza Arayesh who is temporarily released from Shiraz’s Adel-Abad prison about this heavy sentence for the three Gonabadi Dervishes, residents of Kavar county in Fars province.
The interview was broadcast on Voice of America “The Khabar saz, Antenna programme” (16 Mehr/Oct 8).
(Masih Alinejad is well known for her courageous criticism of Iranian authorities. She was a parliamentary reporter for ILNA and a journalist at Hambastegi Daily and Etemad Melli Daily. Several of her articles were followed by harsh criticism from conservative parties in Iran. In 2008, former Iranian head of parliament apologized after an article by Alinejad was published in Etemad Melli Daily on economic problems in Iran.
Masih was a Parliamentary correspondent for ‘ Hambastegi’ Daily and ‘Iranian Labour News Agency’ (ILNA) for four years, prior to her expulsion from Parliament in 2005. Expulsion from Parliament caused worldwide media attention because she had exposed that a significant increase in deputies’ salaries had not been made public then the Nobel Prize winning lawyer, Shirin Ebadei offered to represent her at the court.
Masih Alinejad is the winner of the first annual ‘Omid Journalism Award’ from the Mehdi Semsar Foundation which is an Iranian – French Organization. She was arrested as an activist for producing leaflets critical of the Iranian Government in 1994.)