Front Line has learned with concern that journalist Mr Bahaman Ahamadi Amoee, who is serving five years in prison for charges related to pro-reform articles, has been deprived of normal family visitation rights. In particular, he has been restricted from receiving visits by his wife, Jila Baniyaghoob.

Ms Baniyaghoob, a journalist and well-known human rights defender, said that “I can only see my husband once a week for 20 minutes through a phone booth, behind a glass wall. While according to the Prisons Organization’s Procedures, prisoners are entitled to one in-person visit every month. But in the past year that Bahman has been imprisoned, he has only been allowed in-person visits three times.”

Bahman Amooee is currently serving a five year prison sentence. Regarding the conviction of her husband, Jila Baniyaghoob said that the only evidence and documents in Bahman’s file were the articles and reports he wrote. The fact of his being the editor of the Khordad-e-Now website was used as evidence of his mutiny and a conspiracy against national security. Bahman was charged with “disrupting public order” after his arrest, while assigned to report on a gathering of demonstrators on 15 June 2009. “He provided a letter of assignment from the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, but the court didn’t pay any attention to the document”.

Jila Baniyaghoub and her husband Bahman Ahmadi Amooee were arrested in their home on 20 June 2009, during a clamp-down on human rights defenders in the aftermath of the controversial presidential election. After 60 days in prison, Jila Baniyaghoub was released on bail. In June 2010 she was sentenced to one year in prison and was banned from the profession of journalism for 30 years.

See the original Urgent Appeal of 24 June 2009 on behalf of Jila Baniyaghoob