Maziar Bahari released on bail
Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari has been released on bail from Evin prison in Iran, according to news reports over the weekend. The Newsweek correspondent was arrested June 21 and has been imprisoned ever since.
Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari has been released on bail from Evin Prison in Iran, according to reports over the weekend from CBC, CTV, his employer Newsweek and others. The Newsweek correspondent was arrested June 21 and has been imprisoned since.
Bahari was one of dozens of journalists jailed during the unrest following the disputed election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in June 12. He was the last foreign correspondent known to remain in prison.
In early September, the CBC reported that Bahari had been acquitted on minor charges of inciting political uprisings, but was still being held on suspicion that he had been working for a foreign government. Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon met with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, in August to call for Bahari’s release.
Bahari is originally from Iran, but was
educated at Concordia University in Montreal and maintains a home in
Toronto. He is a Canadian citizen.
His wife is about to give birth to their first child, and is reported to be experiencing health complications, leading to suggestions that Bahari’s release is at least partly on humanitarian grounds.
There are further details on his arrest and actions taken to secure his release in our original post on J-Source.
Grant Buckler is a retired freelance journalist and a volunteer with Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and lives in Kingston, Ont.