Masih Alinejad: The Islamic Republic intends to put pressure on journalists outside Iran by taking their families hostage
Masih Alinejad says that by imprisoning his brother in Iran, the Islamic Republic is trying to pressure him for his journalistic activities.
Masih Alinejad, an independent journalist and host of the VOA Tablet program, said on Monday, November 9, 2020, in an interview with the VOA Persian service's "9 Shab" news program that the Islamic Republic regime "gave itself power from the very beginning by taking American diplomats hostage, became arrogant, then took dual citizens hostage, and now it is taking family members of political prisoners and human rights activists hostage to suffocate me. What I want to say is that the government that executes and tortures should feel the pangs of conscience, not me, who am only the voice of these families and the voice of these killed."
She said that the bill published by Saeed Dehghan and Arash Kaykhosravi, her brother's two lawyers, is their document and testimony, which states that "the Islamic Republic and the judicial system have taken Masih Alinejad's brother hostage." Ms. Alinejad added: "It is written in this bill, these two lawyers have declared that what was heard in the first instance court was the scream of Judge Moghiseh, and Ali Alinejad's weak voice was not heard in the court."
According to Ms. Alinejad, the two lawyers in question have written and testified that “because Masih Alinejad did not relent in his work, the Court of Appeals and Retrials upheld my brother’s eight-year prison sentence. [But] I will not relent and I will not remain silent.”
Four months ago, the 8-year prison sentence for Alireza Alinejad, brother of Masih Alinejad, an independent journalist and host of the Voice of America program Tablet, which was issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran in late July, was also upheld in the appeals court.
Saeed Dehghan, Alireza Alinejad's defense lawyer, announced on Sunday, October 17, in a tweet that Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeals had confirmed the verdict, regardless of the objections of Mr. Alinejad's defense lawyers, to the 8-year prison sentence issued by Branch 28 of the Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Court.
Mr. Dehghan has further announced that he intends to publish his defense bills in this case soon, along with Arash Kaykhosravi, Mr. Alinejad's other defense attorney .
Earlier, when the Revolutionary Court sentenced her brother to 8 years in prison, Ms. Alinejad announced on Twitter that two years of this sentence were for insulting the leader, and because of a statement by Mr. Alinejad that whenever Khamenei declared his innocence on his own radio and television, he would also reject his sister.
On the other hand, this independent journalist, who says the Islamic Republic has taken his brother hostage to "silence and punish" him, had previously said in an interview with Voice of America: "The IRGC and my sister's family had a plan to take me to Turkey under the pretext of meeting my mother and kidnap me there. My brother exposed their plan and wrote to me publicly on Instagram: "Don't go to Turkey. Now they have condemned my brother for exposing the IRGC's collusion."
According to available information, Iranian Ministry of Intelligence agents arrested Ali Alinejad on Tuesday, September 20, 2019, by "raiding" his home.
This is not the first time that the family of the independent journalist and founder of the “White Wednesdays” campaign to fight against compulsory hijab has been pressured by the Islamic Republic’s authorities. In late April of last year, Ms. Alinejad told VOA that her mother had been summoned to the security police and warned that she would have to answer for “telephone calls abroad.”
Source: Voice of America
