Tehran, June 29, IRNA -- The reformist journalist Hoda Saber has been held
in solitary confinement since January and is suffering from cardiac disease, the student news agency ISNA quoted his wife as saying Friday.
"My husband was arrested January 29 and taken to individual cell. Since 150
days ago, he has been suffering from cardiac disease," Farideh Saber told
the agency.
"Since his detention, I have only visited him twice. My 12- and 18-year-old
sons are worried about the fate of their father," she told ISNA.
Hoda Saber was arrested in January upon an order by the Revolutionary Court. He was a columnist with Iran-e
Farda.
Over 40 pro-reform newspapers have been closed down by the country's conservative-dominated courts since April last year leading to the arrest
and/or imprisonment of several dissidents and/or journalists.
In a latest blow, the Guardian Council, Iran's top constitutional watchdog,
has rejected a bill passed by the Majlis that would define, for the first
time since the 1979-Islamic Revolution, that constitutes a "political offenses" and thereby strengthen the rights of "prisoners of conscience".
Late last month deputies overwhelmingly approved a draft of the bill, proposed by reformist deputies backing reelected President Mohammad
Khatami, that requires a "political offense" to be heard by a panel of judges in regular trial courts and not by Islamic revolutionary courts or
military tribunals.
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