8 Nobel laureates demand release of jailed journalist in Iran

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 05 – Eight winners of the Nobel prize called on Iran to immediately and unconditionally release jailed journalist Akbar Ganji, currently on day 55 of a hunger strike in protest to his detention. Ganji’s physical state is said
to have deteriorated to a critical state and his wife said that she had been prevented from seeing him for the past two days. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 05 – Eight winners of the Nobel prize called on Iran to immediately and unconditionally release jailed journalist Akbar Ganji, currently on day 55 of a hunger strike in protest to his detention.

Ganji’s physical state is said to have deteriorated to a critical state and his wife said that she had been prevented from seeing him for the past two days.

The petition for Ganji’s freedom was launched by Iran’s Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi who won the Nobel peace award in 2003.

Ganji is serving the last months of a six-year-sentence handed down to him for writing a book in which he exposed the role of a number of senior officials within the clerical establishment in the murders of dissidents throughout the country.

In addition to Ebadi, the other Nobel laureates who signed the joint petition included John Hume from the United Kingdom, winner of the 1998 Nobel peace prize; Jody Williams from the United States, winner of the 1997 Nobel peace prize; Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa, winner of the 1984 Nobel peace prize; Mairead Corrigan Maguire from Ireland, winner of the 1976 Nobel peace prize; Betty Williams from Ireland, winner of the 1976 Nobel peace prize; Maurice Allais from France, winner of the 1988 Nobel prize for economics; and Georges Charpak from France, winner of the 1992 Nobel prize for physics.