Iranian authorities refuse to inform family of detained journalist

Mohammad Nourizad after his release last July

Wife of Mohammad Nourizad, the detained journalists and filmmaker, announced that she is being kept in complete blackout regarding news about her husband.

Fatemeh Maleki, Nourizad’s wife has told Kaleme website: "It is 20 days since my husband has retuned to Evin Prison but we have not been even told where he is being kept.”

Mohammad Nourizad was incarcerated for writing a series of politically critical letters to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. While in prison he continued writing more letters to the leader and after many months, he was finally released on bail last July.

He wrote his sixth letter of criticism to the supreme leader during his release and was recalled back to prison on August 19.

Moments before his return, he published a short note on his website saying: “I do not know where they will take me this time” and expressed concern over the “hospitality” he would receive in prison this time over.

Fatemeh Maleki reports that the judiciary refuses to respond to her inquiries about her husband.

Maleki says: “With the actions we see, we think nothing is being done according to the law and even a prisoner that has a confirmed sentence gets strange treatments.”

Mohammad Nourizad, who in his writings was always a staunch supporter of Iran’s supreme leader, in the course of the 2009 presidential elections and allegations of fraud in the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, joined the opposition in criticizing the violent treatment of protesters and expressed his critical views in open letters to the supreme leader.