Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami visited the family of jailed Iranian journalist Serajeddin Mirdamadi on Tuesday August 5 and expressed dismay about his arrest and his “unfair” sentence.

Mirdamadi was sentenced to six years in jail on Sunday July 27 in the preliminary court. Khatami was quoted as saying: “In the upper echelons of the regime, I believe there is another view of this situation, but there are those who want to insist that nothing has changed while the situation is even worse; and the situation of political prisoners, the house arrest of MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and my situation are now even more acute.”

A number of Iranian MPs recently urged the judiciary to implement an alleged sentence banning former president Mohammad Khatami from talking and appearing in the media and traveling abroad. The spelling mistakes in the letter signed by one of Khatami’s staunch opponents, Javad Karimi, hit the headlines.

Khatami reportedly criticized the sentence issued by the court, stating there was no justification for sentencing Mirdamadi to six years in prison.

Serajeddin Mirdamadi returned to Iran following the election of moderate president Hassan Rohani, who had promised a more open political atmosphere. Mirdamadi’s passport was confiscated at the airport and, after several interrogation sessions, he was arrested and tried on July 27.

Radio Zamaneh